Welcome. Today we're gonna talk about real world emergency response in the international context. I'm John Cauthen,
Vice President of Security for MedAire, and I'd like to introduce my colleague,
Elmarie.
Hi. Thanks, John. I'm Elmarie, and I'm the CEO of Go Crisis.
Um, Go Crisis works with operators to get them ready in their planning and their training,
um, for an incident or accident, and then, uh, if something goes wrong, we provide them with the resources
on the ground to navigate the difficult circumstances.
Fantastic. Thanks for that, El. And, uh, MedAire, of course, we work very, very closely with Go Crisis, and
we support with security and medical services, notably for survivors and those injured in these crisis
type situations. So with that,
El, let's talk a little bit about a crisis, and it could be small scale, large scale. Anywhere in an
international context, you introduce immediate complexities outside of your home
location, and today it'll be good to understand what some of those complexities are and
some of the things that our
clients and others should consider when they're planning and especially when they're updating, revising, and exercising
their ERPs. So if we start with some foundational questions,
international operations,
the context, the regulations, the laws, the policies, all of those that might affect
what people should be thinking about when they're operating in this type of environment. Would you care to elaborate
on
that a bit? Yes, sure. There's,
um, there's obviously loads of regulations, um, and mandates around. There's about 14 countries and growing in the
world, uh, that stipulates,
uh, what, uh, uh, an operator should do or an airline should do, um, in case of an accident.
Um, they mostly, um, are relevant to commercial aviation. But in my 20-year career, what I've really learned
is that it doesn't really matter where the accident happens,
how large the accident is, or how many people are on board the aircraft,
um, or, uh, the size of your operations, um, or what type of operations you
have. If you follow, and we, we really like to do that, follow the Family Assistance Act of the United
States
as sort of your, your North Star in how to take care of affected
people, you simply cannot go wrong. So that's what I want to stress here today is of course there's regulations
and mandates out there, but best practice is really where you want to find your operations. And that's great advice.
Um, and I think one of the things that, for example, NBAA does well in their Certified Aviation Manager program,
there are some areas where they speak exactly
to this, building upon some of those foundational frameworks and offering some additional best practices, things to consider. What should
you be incorporating into your ERP? How should you be thinking about this as an operator? Whatever that size
and scale is. Mm-hmm. And as you can see here in this slide, there are a number of things that
one should consider and consider incorporating into their ERP, and importantly, exercising that as they move forward and refine these
processes because you'll never probably ever get to covering every contingency,
but the more that you uncover by doing these types of
exercises, the more prepared ultimately you probably are. Exactly. And
there's... And you know, if you've got a, a solid ERP which tells you what to
do, how to do it, who's going to do it, um, and checklists to follow that, and exercises and training
to back that up, I always feel like you've got the foundations in
place because no incident or accident is the
same. Um, there's always curve balls coming and complexities depending on where the accident happened, who's on
board. So if you've got those foundations in place, like you see here on the, uh, on the management
guide, um, then, you can focus your energy on the curve balls and the complexities that come with different accidents.
Absolutely. And we obviously operate from sometimes a very well-known location home base. Yeah. But as we're operating in that
international context, it's even more important to think through what are some of those worst case scenarios, again, because these
jurisdictions probably treat the process
very different than you might be accustomed to. Yes. If something happens in the United States, you can
be sure it'll be... I always say it will be a three-legged
race. Um, but in places like the United States,
um, uh, if something happens here, it will definitely run
a lot smoother. Um, but there's other parts of the world where the challenges, um, can be quite significant,
and you as the operator can be completely sidelined in responding
to that. Um- Yeah ... so it's really important to know what those challenges are. Absolutely. Well, in light
of that, can you talk us through some of those best practices that would help our audience better understand how
they can con- contextualize this and ultimately incorporate this into that ERP and part of their processes as they're evolving
and learning and growing?
I'd like to look at the company's primary objectives, um, which is your sort of your guiding, um, priorities.
Um, first is to establish a central crisis. management team. Um, and this could, you know, some
operators have got state-of-the-art crisis management centers and team depth, and some are really limited in their resources.
But it's really just a central
location, um, where people come together, it could even be online, and start making strategic decisions in how to deploy
resources, look after your brand, the people on board, their families, and your organization.
Um, and
of course, uh, that cell of crisis management,
um, uh, team will then, look at caring for people who are directly affected, so the people on board and,
their families. Care for those indirectly affected, that's the community
or your staff. Um, uh, continue your operations. It's really important. I always
say it's, um, you know, it is, it is your incident, it's your accident, it is your people
on board, it is your
brand. But what is a very, good thing is to ring-fence that, a little bit. So you've got a team
continuing your business and your operations, and you have
a team running, um, and managing the incident or accident.
Um, so,
uh, you've got to think about who's going to, to continue your operations and how
you're going to do that, and sometimes that includes perhaps sensitively remove some promotional,
um, campaigns that you have ongoing. Um, just think about
how you sensitively, um, continue
operations. Then protect your or- your organization's
reputation. Um, I always say that if you do right by the affected
people, you'll automatically be looking after your organization. But that also involves,
um, the communications around what
you are doing. Um, and then of course, support the investigation.
Absolutely, and I think you've highlighted a very important point here.
The sensitivity, and there's really no replacement to trying to put yourself into a situation where you're considering every one
of those sensitivities from the organizational level down to the individual level. And there's probably quite a
few things that I'm sure we'll be getting into in detail here based on your experiences that
we can talk to a bit more
that cover some of
that. But in light of that, are there a few scenarios from various crashes, incidents, events over certainly
your career that you can speak to that pose some of these unique
challenges for our audience to consider as they're thinking through what they need to do to incorporate
some of those best practices? Yeah, and I'll talk about the challenges, um, in a moment. Um, what I, what
I think I should, um, just mention here is
what does, um, what have you got to have in place to then manage those, those challenges coming your way?
So the, um, I'll just touch on a few things very briefly is you've got to have a contact center.
So, um, in, uh, business operations,
um, that may well mean that you know exactly who's on board. If it's a closed event, a
closed event is when,
um,
the only the people on board the aircraft is involved. An open event is if you had an accident
into a building and there are people on, you know, involved in the incident that you don't really know who
they are. Yeah. Um, so in a closed event, you may
want to have a contact center who reaches out
to, um, the, the affected people or their families to be able to say, "We believe your loved one
might be involved in this incident."
Um, if it's an open event, you may want to publish
a, a toll-free number for people to call to
say, you know, "I think my loved one might have been involved."
So the reason for the contact center is ultimately
victim, victim accounting and reaching out to affected people to say that your loved
one was involved. Um, then humanitarian assistance
is,
um, best practice, means you set up a family assistance center.
It doesn't have to be a big operation. Um, it is a service that you provide to the
families. So they may want to fly out to the accident site.
Um, we may need to gather, um, antemortem information from them,
um, fly them in, arrange their visas, mental health support. All the logistics around taking care of the family
falls under this humanitarian or family assistance. Absolutely. And interestingly,
um, and I'm curious,
do you often see and have you seen, when we talk about families, is it beyond even just the immediate
family? Have you seen an interest in the wider family
want to be a part of this process?
That's a very good question because that's a policy decision, um- Mm ... that the operator
has to make to decide if we are going to
fly, um, four family members in per person
on board or six or 12, and it's maybe something that you wanna discuss with your insurer beforehand to decide.
Um, sometimes it is
your, you know, general it's between four and eight family members per person on board that's being looked after and
flown to the accident site.
Um, but that is a decision, um, that lies, you know, with the organization.
Yeah. Sometimes, um, there
could be a, a, a wider number of people, um, being flown
out. Um, so it's just deciding beforehand,
um, what that may be. And to have a general guideline in place is fantastic, and then on a case-by-case
basis, if there is a family with a bigger, with a
bigger need, then those decisions are made
at the time. But it's much better to have that in your ERP
established, what are we going to do
and what can we offer, rather than making it up on the fly. That's a great point. Thank you. Yeah.
Good.
Um, then, uh, caring for the injured, um, this can be exceptionally complex. In, um, aviation disasters, we've really learned
that, um, the- if you have one fatality on
board, um, injuries are
often mo- uh, uh, life-changing
injuries. So, um, you can expect, um, that your injured, um, survivors may have gone to different hospitals depending on
where the accident
happened. Um, if it's far away from home, like I mentioned, if something happens in the
States, you can be sure
that the medical, um, support that they might get, and this, this is more Mayday's bailiwick, that's why we partner
in this realm, um, is, you know, it will be good, but in other parts of the
world, they may not have the facilities or the resources-
Yeah ... that you need. Um, so it's important to find out where they've gone, what's
their status, um, uh, are they getting the correct medical, uh, support, who's paying the medical bills.
Um, and I'll plug Mayday now because that's exactly why we work together is because you give us that capability,
um, uh, for the operator and the affected people to be able to get that information to the
families and to act
upon that. Yeah. Absolutely, and I think what we've learned as well is the trauma is not just restricted to
potential physical injuries, but there's also the mental component. Yeah. Have you seen that in your experience, and have you
seen that change or evolve over time in how we respond to that?
It would, it would appear, at least from our perspective, that this is gonna be a comprehensive
solution, and are, are you seeing that in the real world, in the practice- Absolutely ... of this type of
response? Absolutely, and I do have to say that you expect mental health support
or mental health needs to be only with affected
people, but you'll be very surprised, especially in
the operator. Um, they are small, um, you know, uh, uh, operations
often. Um, they know the people on board.
Some of them are the executives of the organization.
So it affects, um, your staff dealing with the incident very, very
much so. Um, so not only is the mental health, um, provided to the families and the injured
survivors, um, but it goes
wider than that. Um, and it's another
thing that we, we, we work with our mental health providers to say,
to see, you know, to what extent are we going to look after the mental health of this population, because
they may need a little bit more- Yeah ... versus the staff and the wider community.
We might need to have a, a group briefing or if there's more individual
needs, um, that come out of that that
we could, um, provide that on a case-by-case basis. But
it is something that I'm really pleased to see over many years now that we acknowledge the fact
that there's this impact, um, on the mental health of, of people involved in an incident or accident,
those working responding to it, those who've witnessed it, or the communities that have been affected
by it, and providing that's very important. That's a great point. And so sta- thinking about those who are affected
in either an adjacent manner,
directly, indirectly, however you wanna
categorize it, considering the wider population is probably something you ought to do as part of that planning
process, thinking through this when you're building out-
And revising your ERP so that you're not having to do that in the moment. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
Um, disaster assistance, um, that's quite a difficult, um, part of the services that we
provide. Um, and this is search and recovery-
Mm-hmm ... the identification and the repatriation of human remains. Um, and I always say that with a slight caveat
because, um, the identification of, um, disaster victims really lie with the state
of occurrence. Um, but depending on where the accident
happened,
um, uh, in my career there's certainly
been, um, many times where a commercial company like Go Crisis, would come in and support setting up temporary mortuaries,
providing DVI specialists to identify the victims, but I say that very loosely because it's generally- Yeah ... the authorities
that
run that. Um, and then the repatriation lies with, um, the responsibility lies
with the operator to bring the remains back according to the family's wishes, and that's where we help. So to
have all of this in place beforehand is very important. Um, and I'll talk more about personal effects a little
bit, um, on the next
slide. Um, but you also have to have an ability to search, recover,
uh, decontaminate, and process and return personal
effects to people. Mm. El, great point on the authorities who have primary responsibility
to respond. Different jurisdictions, I'm sure different capabilities, different competencies. What have you seen in your experience, and how has
Go Crisis either had to augment that or even sometimes directly
support? So that's very interesting, um, because, um, there's the statistic, and I'm not actually even sure this is, you
know, don't quote me on this, but I learned somewhere in my career
that even, uh, an, uh, an accident, um, with 50 fatalities can be very taxing on a large city like
London. Mm-hmm. Um, so, uh, so for one, even large cities who've got the capability to deal
with a, a big incident
or accident, um, can put, uh, you know, can put their resources
under strain. But there's some parts of the world that really do not have the expertise.
So when it comes to victim identification, um, in my career I've seen
the Dutch,
um, uh, I've seen Australians, I've seen, um, uh, the UK authorities
sending their DVI specialist- I see ... to help
and support. Um, but, uh, depending on how rural the accident is, we may have to set up a temporary
mortuary and augment
the teams. Um, in my career
we've, we have, um, been part of an international
team, um, led by the, by the authorities in charge.
Um, but it, it varies a lot, um, from, uh, country to country as to,
uh, the, the capabilities
that they have. Um, and just another thing
to mention, that is, um, if companies like G- Go Crisis gets involved in that, we are definitely invited by
the government to do that. Absolutely. So it's probably a good idea to think through whatever your operation is, not
just at home base, but think about the destinations that you go to. And I know this is not always
the case, where you can plan for every location, but certainly try to get a sense of what those geographies
are gonna look like, what sort of capabilities might be there, and even those overflight areas, and try to build
that picture of what sort of support you may or may not have so that you can plan through
that in advance. Exactly. And a very good place to start your, your... I, and I know with, you know,
operators, they don't always know where they're gonna go to, you know- Yeah ... tomorrow. Yeah. So that poses a
different challenge. Um, but if you know your regular routes, um, and if you, you know, because statistically,
um, accidents happen at takeoff and landing, so that's a good place to start, to go,
"Where do we usually
go? Um, and what are the challenges that we're gonna face,
be faced with?" I always say just plan for the worst-case scenario. Absolutely. And then you can, um, you can
always scale, back from that, but you can't catch up if, if that was the case.
Indeed. Well, that actually offers us a great segue to start to talk through some of the challenges that you
ought to think about as an operator when you're trying to piece this together and build as comprehensive
an ERP and a response and recovery
plan as possible. Um, yes, and we can talk about some examples of challenges, um, that you'll be faced with,
uh, you could be faced with after an
accident. And I'll, I'll, I'll touch on a few here that I've seen in my career. So instant and overwhelming
media attention.
Um, usually for, um, business operators, sometimes the brand of the person on board the aircraft is bigger than the
brand- That's a great- ... of the operator ... that's a great point. Um, so the media attention in aviation,
um, always gets an incredible, um, amount of, uh, attention. For some reason, there's a fascination
around
aviation. Um, I'll give you a quick example. Um, it's not a business operator, but when Delta had the accident
and they ha- they, they landed, um,
upside down, there was no fatalities, but in the same,
um, on the same day there was a bus accident with 30 fatalities. But, uh, there was hardly any
coverage around that, and, you know, the, the media really pays a lot
of attention, um, to that. So navigating
that, um, is very important. Uh, another, um, example that I have here is we are, we've recently responded to
an accident where the media coverage, there was VIPs on board, um, the,
the aircraft. Um, the media coverage was that the VIPs have been identified and repatriated back home,
and the crew families were reading this in the media and asking
us, "How is it possible that the VIPs
have sent, been sent back?" That's a great point. This was a debris field of two and a half kilometers,
and, um, there was no way that
that would've been, um, possible, you know, just, you
know, by the sheer fact of, of the situation.
Um, but the media was reporting that, which caused a lot of distress for, for the family members
of, um, of
the crew. Um, and which left the operator in a very tight spot where there was no information
for the families. They were getting information from
the media, and a lot of time went into verifying it and saying to the families, "Look, that is not
a true report of what's
going on." So, uh, the media can be a very difficult thing to navigate. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, then another
thing is thousands of phone calls coming in. Uh, you would be very surprised, even
smaller incidents, um, that the public and the media will call every single telephone number... number that is published of
your organization. So it's way better to publish a telephone number that is dedicated to the incident if there are
any inquiries or media inquiries coming in so that you could field those.
Um, distressed, uh, and traumatized family members, um, and I won't go through the whole
slide, but, um, that is really, really important. Um, I'll give you an example,
um, of, uh, the detail that you've got to think about. Um,
so when something goes wrong, we really wanna reach out to the families as quickly
as we can, and we want to fly them out, if
it's their choice, to go to the incident site.
Um, they may need to be there, um, for, uh, the, the identification process.
Um, they may need to be there, um, and may want to be there for the memorial service
or remembrance service or to visit the site and lay down flowers.
Um, we, uh, recently had an incident where a crew member has lost her
life, um, uh, overseas, and we flew the family
out. Part of our protocols, um, whether it is 200 people on board the aircraft or one family
that you're dealing with,
is to think about the detail. For
instance, um, if the taxi,
um, or car picks them up from home to take them to the
airport, um, that the taxi driver knows not to ask any questions,
not to play any music. And these are things that we've learned, you know, over the years by making
the mistakes
of, you know, uh, songs coming up that could mean something to the
family. Um, and then holding the family's hands
through the process. It could be very
painful. They may want to, uh, visit the last place that the, the crew member was. In
this case, a, a crew
member committed suicide on the outstation, and the family wanted to visit
the room. So we needed to make sure that that room is secure and left at the way the
families, um, uh... you know, or the, or the way that their loved one left it.
Um, but we did go in beforehand, and there was a lot of, um, signs that, um,
uh, that the first responders were there. Their masks and their gloves were left, uh, lying
around. So we just removed
those things but left everything else untouched for the families to be
able to visit that.
Um, also it was a holiday resort, so we needed to make sure that the usual "Welcome, enjoy your holiday"
champagne bottles wasn't in their room when they got there.
Um, we replaced it with a letter
from the CEO, um, and, uh, and a fruit bowl, for instance. So
there's incredible detail that has to go through, um, thinking about the family's entire journey
end to end. Yeah. That's a great point, and that highlights what you talked
about earlier, that attention to detail and really understanding the sensitivities because these are heartbreaking situations, and every small thing
compounds, I would imagine.
Yes. Yes. We... Our job is we can't fix what's happened, but we can help not make it worse.
Yeah. And that's what
we try and do. Um,
uh, another thing that I'll try and talk about very briefly is, um, it goes hand-to-hand a little bit
with involvement of multiple agencies- Yeah ... and
the dis- and the, the repatriation of human
remains. Um, because in some jurisdictions,
um, there may be, uh, identification of the remains and a, a death certificate issued, and a coroner's report
or medical examiner's report
may be issued. But the receiving country
may want to do their own checks. I see. And that for families can be really difficult because
it delays receiving their loved one back and, uh, delays having
a funeral. So it is navigating
that. Um, often also if there is fragmented remains,
um, which is a, a very common situation that we have to communicate and support families
through, where we need to explain to the families why it's taking so long to identify their, their loved one,
why,
um, uh, may there be multiple repatriations for one person. Uh, do the families want to know the
first time that we identify their loved
one, the last time, or every time? Um- Wow
... that it is very confronting, and from an operator's point of view,
um, who's going to have those conversations-
Indeed ... with, with the
families? So it's better to bring someone in who, who, who has done this, who has trained
to do this, who understands the process, who understands victim identification, repatriation, to be able to relay that information to
families. But it can be exceptionally hard, and it's very, very hard, of course, not only for the families
but for the, your staff who will be dealing with that information.
Yeah. And that's a great point, and I would imagine, and we've seen certainly with some of the similar situations
with survivors from these types of incidents, where sometimes, as you've mentioned earlier, they're taken to dispersed medical
facilities. Yes. Yes. And oftentimes you won't know where those medical facilities
are, what the conditions of
these survivors are, and importantly, even after you've located
them, it may be difficult to obtain information
because of privacy requirements, health, um, health information
release
restrictions.
Mm-hmm. So having a medical-to-medical type relationship where you might be able to smooth that process is probably also critically
important- Yes ... as part of this process. Definitely. And, and that's why, um, I remember when we met that
day- Yeah ... um, it was like,
uh, you know, it, we just, we could see that there's something that we could do together as organizations because,
um, for many, many years, um, uh, going to industry conferences where these issues are discussed under, you know, closed,
uh, um,
uh, uh, doors, um, it was very obvious for me always that there's this missing wedge in our response,
and that is how do we look after, um, injured survivors? How do we find the medical information to be
able to share this
with families? Um, because
there was, uh, uh, several case studies but one in specific where, um, the loved ones heard
that their,
their, um, loved one on board the aircraft
survived, and they thought that they were going to come and meet them at
the hospital, um, and, uh, and take them home. But it was life-changing,
um,
uh, injuries,
and, uh, it... to the point that they eventually,
the, these, um, injured people stayed in the US. They got citizenship
in the US, um, because the care that they would have got in here was, was much better
than they would have in the country where they've, they've
come from. So, um, but I think for the families,
the, the, the distress
that they had to go through arriving,
you know, uh, quite relieved their loved ones survived but then,
um, being faced with the information of life-changing, changing
injuries. Um, you know, if we can just anticipate that and give them that information as quickly as we can-
Yeah ... um, is so important to taking care. And they've got the right to know this, you know? And
I
think, uh, to have those medical steps in place to support that is quite important. Absolutely.
And I remember you telling me a story in one particular incident not too long ago where the
As some of these survivors have been taken to multiple facilities, right? The
first responders, they're trying to treat, triage
and treat, and sometimes the, um,
less severely injured- Mm-hmm ... they'll actually be released, and the hospital's essentially done their job, yet nobody has
any clue where they are. They haven't been accounted for. Exactly. And now these, now these individuals are unfortunately left
in a very precarious
position. Can you speak to that a little bit as well? Yes, yes, and f- you know, from the operator's
point of view, so, um, firstly, the, the, you, you've just, if you think about it, you've just walked off
an aircraft. You, you know, you went to hospital, you received your treatment, and the hospital sort of says
y- you're released. You don't know where to get information. You
don't know who to speak to. Uh, you know, do you catch your next flight? Do you... You know, like,
where do you go? What do you do? And that sort of, um, uh,
uh, you know, just trying to
figuring it out,
i- you know, uh, as, as you've just been through this shocking, um, experience,
um, must be horrifying. Yeah. So it's
really our ins- uh, our responsibility to
locate them, um, to give these people the information and the resources
that they need and help them with their on- onward journey,
and then, of course, provide them the option
for medical, um, and, uh, uh,
mental health support. Yeah, and I would imagine even more important, especially if you're in a location, that's unfamiliar to
you, might not even speak the language-
Yes ... challenges compound. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. To be reunited, if possible at all, with your belongings,
um, so that you can carry on your onward journey. Yeah, 'cause I mean, you may actually not have
your phone or any devices- Yeah ... or any way to communicate as well. Exactly. Yeah. So we need to
be... And this is actually
what I, I always say. To be able to make
a difference, you need to be at the incident site. Indeed. And if you're an operator operating from a far
corner of the world, getting there quickly is challenging. So to have a service provider with a global reach that
can get there quickly,
you don't have to worry about language, culture, visas, and we can provide that support
on the ground, is exceptionally important until you can get your leadership there
to, to have that visible leadership
that they' need. Yeah. And I know you'll touch on it in a little bit more detail, but that's probably
another area to think about as well. When you come
to help and respond to
that incident, you've gotta be mindful about what that location is and what that jurisdiction is, and especially potentially
some of the legal ramifications associated with a mishap or an accident.
Yeah. So knowing that information in advance before you show up is also probably critically important. Yes, absolutely.
And we spoke a lot about what resources to have in place,
um, but, you know, two of those resources is you need legal counsel. Yeah. Um,
uh,
and another thing is your
insurers. You have to understand some parts of the world, an accident is criminalized,
um, and they' may detain
your crew. If you have a senior person traveling there, that he, they may be at risk, um, of being
detained or their passport confiscated. So it's understanding that environment that you're going to- Wow ... respond in is really
important. Yeah, lot to consider. Yeah.