In a panel session with other CEOs at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting in Cancun, Mexico, yesterday, Bellew said they had “15 minutes or less to say sorry”.
“We had the first statement out within 14 minutes from the minute I heard about it in the sky,” Bellew was quoted as saying.
He added that with the use of social media and passengers live streaming any incident from their phones and the proliferation of fake news, it was crucial to react fast.
On May 31, MAS flight MH128 left Melbourne Airport at 11.11pm and was to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 5.28 am the next day. However, it turned back to Melbourne after the operating captain was alerted that a passenger was attempting to enter the cockpit.
The “disruptive passenger” then threatened to blow up the plane with a device which looked like a bluetooth speaker, as claimed by witnesses.
The passenger, a Sri Lankan national with a valid Australian student visa, was later discovered to have received treatment from a psychiatric facility from where he was discharged the day before.
According to Reuters, the panel session also included United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz, who came under fire for a poor response via Twitter after an incident where a passenger was forcibly removed as a flight had been overbooked and a United Airlines staff had wanted to get on board.
Munoz admitted he had not apologised quickly enough after 69-year-old passenger David Dao was dragged from a United flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport when he refused to give up his seat to make room for crew members.
“The initial focus for me should have been to do what I did a few hours later and apologise,” Munoz said.
However, he rejected Bellew’s suggestion that 15 minutes was the cut-off point, saying there was more time than that and it was important to establish facts first.
Meanwhile, independent aviation consultant John Strickland told airline CEOs they need to face any crisis head on.
“Airlines typically want to recoil but they would do better to get out there and face it head on. They need to explain what happened and how they’re handling it,” Strickland was quoted as saying by Reuters.
MAS plane diverts to Melbourne due to ‘disruptive passenger’