Page 15 - Index

A reduction in operations,
however, does not result in
the ability to reduce staffing
or support for emergency re-
sponse and family assistance
programs. The impact of an
accident with a carrier flying
one aircraft is the same as a
carrier flying a fleet of several
hundred.

Investing in Emergency
Response
Airlines will rebound, and
as of this writing some have
begun to see the return of pas-
sengers. However, additional
variants of COVID-19 contin-
ue to emerge. Airlines must
prioritize investing in their
emergency response programs
with qualified, expert individ-
uals who can both maintain
and grow their processes for
the future. A failure of one air- to coexist in some of these assistance center once it is ited to no familiarity or access
line to properly respond could locations. Go-teams were cut safe to do so. The need to to virtual training tools.
result in a cascading impact to only the personnel essential have trained teams that can As a result of these challeng-
across the industry. to establish an operation in provide virtual assistance and es, coupled with the lack of
the accident location. It sim- the tools to do so, however, funding to develop new train-
Virtual Family Assistance ply would not be possible to will certainly be part of the ing programs, some airlines
continue the traditional model expectation and need moving postponed training through-
Immediate Contingency during this time. Platforms forward. out 2020 and began building
Planning like Microsoft® Teams and stopgap measures to continue
Most airline family assistance Zoom were in various states to hone the skills of their
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programs are based on the of adoption within some or- Training family assistance teams while
traditional model of a family ganizations, and there was no The rapid onset of the pan- turning their focus to long-
assistance center established guarantee that family assis- demic, the closing of airline term solutions once the world
in the accident location, often tance team members or fami- headquarters and training begins to emerge from the
at a hotel or large conference lies themselves would possess facilities, and the inability pandemic. Virtual family assis-
facility. Hotels are established the necessary technology or to move employees around tance training can and likely
for families, survivors, employ- ability to use them to effective- the system to conduct family will be an effective opportu-
ees, responders, and vendors. ly give and receive assistance. assistance training required nity for airlines to continue to
A joint family support op- Airlines had to ensure they airlines to pivot quickly to build their program and reach
erations center is set up for had contingency plans to se- ensure they were providing more employees across their
the leaders of the respective cure devices that could be sent required and appropriate system.
agencies at the family assis- to employee and family homes training to their employees.
tance center to oversee and while still preparing for some Some may have already begun Our Collective Role and
coordinate all operations. on-scene representation. to develop or implement types Responsibility
Airline family assistance plans of virtual training; however,
also contain provisions to family assistance training Collaboration: Preparing as an
assist families who did not Long-Term Planning and has long traditionally had Industry
want to travel by dispatching Implementation an in-person/instructor-led Aviation disaster family as-
a member of their staff to the While it is still too early to component to ensure that the sistance is a complicated and
family. know for certain, the industry appropriate skills for interact- connected link of airlines,
Airlines and other agencies generally believes that the ing with family members and government agencies (includ-
had to immediately evaluate mindset of most families will survivors are demonstrated ing their respective inves-
how they would respond to an continue to be the desire to and reviewed. Some family tigators), nongovernment/
accident without the ability travel to the on-scene family assistance volunteers had lim- nonprofit agencies, vendors,
January-March 2022 ISASI Forum • 15