A crash course in PR: Rule Number 1 - don't hide: Thai Airways Airbus A330-300, HS-TEF, Flight TG-679, Accident occurred September 08, 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand

When the unthinkable happens, it pays to be prepared and not make up crisis handling policy on the hoof that can backfire with disastrous results

THAI Airways International flew into a storm of controversy last week after it decided to paint over its name and corporate logo following the crash of an Airbus 330-300 (flight TG 679) at Suvarnabhumi late last Sunday night which left 14 people injured.

Originally, THAI official Smud Poom-on said that hiding the airline's name and logo was a recommendation from the Star Alliance group known as the ''crisis communication rule'', and was intended to protect the image of both the airline and other members of Star Alliance.

But the airline later issued a statement saying: "THAI generally practices the de-identifying of an aircraft after an incident (or accident), the company also clarifies that it is not a Star Alliance policy or procedure to de-identify aircraft."

Star Alliance is group of 28 airlines around the world, including Lufthansa, United, Air China, Singapore Airlines, ANA and THAI.

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The great airline cover-up 

Flight TG 679 came out of the north and east from southern China last Sunday night, as it did habitually each late evening, homing in on its Suvarnabhumi airport base. At 11.25pm, the Airbus A330-300, its 288 passengers and its 14 crew members kissed the runway.

A few seconds later, the plane shuddered, took a right turn off Runway 19R and drove at speed into the wet grass. Sparks or flames - there is a dispute - came from the starboard engine as it ploughed a furrow in the verge, bending and partly breaking up.

The plane came to a halt. The pilot issued emergency instructions. With the aircraft leaning to the right, evacuation chutes popped out of the left side of the aircraft, and crew and passengers began vacating the scene at speed. Some passengers were hurt in the slide, and in a reasonable time 14 were placed in ambulances and taken to hospital. Two were held overnight, but no one suffered life-threatening injuries.

At that point, less organised and thoughtful people took over. Senior airline executives were quickly notified, among them Sorajak Kasemsuvan, THAI president, who headed immediately for the airport.

The biggest cover-up in Thai Airways history was already under way.

An unidentified manager or airline executive whose name is currently unknown ordered the cover-up. Maintenance crews were quickly assembled.

They grabbed buckets of black paint, long-handled brushes, the keys to a long-armed cherry picker and headed down to TG 679, mired deeply into the soft, rain-soaked earth separating the two Suvarnabhumi runways.

The cherry picker manoeuvred under the imposing tail of the Airbus.

A worker, paint and brushes at the ready, was hoisted 17.2 metres in the air, almost to the top of the tail, where a Thai national flag graced the aircraft.

He began smearing over the flag with the black paint, like a kindergarten finger painter, not at all worried about staying inside the lines.

When he finished covering up the flag, the cherry picker was lowered several metres so he could start painting over the THAI logo. Then he was moved to the lower-left body, just behind the wing, and then to the front, just aft of the cockpit, to paint over other airline identification.

Asked why the airline tried to cover up the national identify, name and logo of Thai Airways International, an airline spokesman said it was "the crisis communication rule of Star Alliance to de-identify" - a great new word - any aircraft in an accident.

Unfortunately, Star Alliance spokesman Markus Ruediger was on international TV within hours denying any such policy.

THAI then had to "clarify", in international view, its claim. It could come up with no reason to scrawl over the stranded plane's markings. But by then, the world was laughing or marvelling at how THAI had manufactured a public relations disaster out of a relatively minor incident.

In a second kerfuffle, passengers from the incident complained they were treated insensitively, herded like cattle. The airline had no crisis room, no crisis staff, no crisis policy. Water, information and general guidance was all as scarce as hen's teeth.

THAI chairman Ampon Kittiampon was angry. He appeared to feel the ungrateful passengers aboard TG 679 clearly over-stepped.

"The incident was unavoidable, but the pilots and the attendants made the right decisions to protect the lives and property of their passengers. The crew exceeded their duties and should be appreciated by passengers."

Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt was unimpressed by the chairman's demand that uppity passengers should be giving wais and multiple thanks for the privilege of cheating death on his airliner. He ordered THAI to take immediate steps to write proper guidelines on how to handle accidents in the event there is another.

Meanwhile, the cause of the accident is obviously going to be sifted through THAI's high-powered and self-interested corporate machine. The official version, unlikely to be affected by the facts of the upcoming investigations, is that the Airbus has known landing-gear problems and that is what caused the aircraft to skid off the Suvarnabhumi runway.

That story, too, is likely to cause some to wonder about a cover-up.

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