A tragedy compounded by official callousness
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 02, 2009 00:00
Like many frequent air travelers, we too have taken not only comfort but pride in the achievements of Turkish Airlines in recent years, the good service, the professionalism and the admirable growth. We salute this national success story.
Like many Turkish citizens, we also shared in the weekend’s mourning over the deaths of nine people in last Wednesday’s crash in Amsterdam, including those of four THY crew members for whom funeral rites were held Saturday.
We certainly have no intentions to second guess the investigators in Holland and France still seeking to determine the cause of the tragedy. And mindful that civil aviation will always carry risks, we make no assumptions from this specific incident about general safety at THY.
But we do join the many in Turkey who are decrying the way the "crisis management" was undertaken. The contrasting styles and standards of the Dutch civil aviation authorities and those in Turkey add up to a case study in carelessness vs. dignified professionalism.
Learning the news of a loved one’s death or injury is among the deepest forms of anguish anyone can endure. There is no easy or painless way this kind of information can be imparted. But no family member of a passenger on a just-crashed jetliner should hear a prime minister speculating that there may be three deaths, or maybe "just" one. The rush by THY officials to deliver the false "good news" of a fatality-free surely compounded the anguish of families who later learned the tragic truth. And Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım, who at one point in the crash’s immediate aftermath told television cameras "there are no victims," stands as a profile of what an official should not do. After his errant declaration was criticized, he turned on those making the criticism with the charge that, "The criticisms aim to wear down THY and Turkish civil aviation."
Little in the aftermath of a plane crash could do more to damage the reputation of THY or Turkish civil aviation than such an outrageous statement from the country’s top transport official.
The Dutch, however, performed with resolute professionalism, winning the approval of Turkish psychologists and grief counselors who were aghast at what happened here. Standards were followed. No public announcement on death or injuries was made until next of kin had been notified. Every effort was made to ensure that counselors were on hand to help survivors cope in the early moments of loss. A healthy balance between sharing publicly critical information with the media and privately traumatic information with survivors and family members was maintained. The lesson must be heeded. Tragedy will no doubt occur in the future. But Turkey should never again witness such a display of official callousness.
We certainly have no intentions to second guess the investigators in Holland and France still seeking to determine the cause of the tragedy. And mindful that civil aviation will always carry risks, we make no assumptions from this specific incident about general safety at THY.
But we do join the many in Turkey who are decrying the way the "crisis management" was undertaken. The contrasting styles and standards of the Dutch civil aviation authorities and those in Turkey add up to a case study in carelessness vs. dignified professionalism.
Learning the news of a loved one’s death or injury is among the deepest forms of anguish anyone can endure. There is no easy or painless way this kind of information can be imparted. But no family member of a passenger on a just-crashed jetliner should hear a prime minister speculating that there may be three deaths, or maybe "just" one. The rush by THY officials to deliver the false "good news" of a fatality-free surely compounded the anguish of families who later learned the tragic truth. And Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım, who at one point in the crash’s immediate aftermath told television cameras "there are no victims," stands as a profile of what an official should not do. After his errant declaration was criticized, he turned on those making the criticism with the charge that, "The criticisms aim to wear down THY and Turkish civil aviation."
Little in the aftermath of a plane crash could do more to damage the reputation of THY or Turkish civil aviation than such an outrageous statement from the country’s top transport official.
The Dutch, however, performed with resolute professionalism, winning the approval of Turkish psychologists and grief counselors who were aghast at what happened here. Standards were followed. No public announcement on death or injuries was made until next of kin had been notified. Every effort was made to ensure that counselors were on hand to help survivors cope in the early moments of loss. A healthy balance between sharing publicly critical information with the media and privately traumatic information with survivors and family members was maintained. The lesson must be heeded. Tragedy will no doubt occur in the future. But Turkey should never again witness such a display of official callousness.