When TWA's Flight 800 exploded over Long Island two summers ago, distraught friends and families of those on board were forced to wait nearly a day for the airline to make the passenger manifest available to the public.
In the wake of Wednesday's fatal crash of its flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia, Swissair is using the Web to make information available as quickly as possible to the bereaved, in an attempt to avert the kind of public relations disaster that ensued with TWA's Flight 800.
"When you're calling from South Africa, waiting to hear about a family member on a plane that crashed," a Swissair spokeswoman said Friday morning," you don't want to be put on hold."
Airline representatives phoned passengers' families before the information was posted on the Web. When asked if news provided through the online medium could be valuable to those worried or grieving, a staffer at the Red Cross national headquarters said, "Our goal is to get the victims' families as much help and information as possible. If this is giving them access to more information, it's a good thing."
The number of international passengers on the plane -- 215 from over 12 countries -- makes the Web an especially appropriate medium for rapid, global dissemination of information, the Swissair spokeswoman observed, calling the Net an "unfiltered, universal information source." The airline is maintaining several telephone hotlines for family members and friends.
Swissair is also flying relatives of victims to the crash site from the United States and Europe at no cost, and announced that it will pay families US$20,000 "to help meet the immediate financial need that may be experienced." Upon arrival in Nova Scotia, relatives are invited to speak with Red Cross counselors, clergy, and Swissair officials, including the president of the airline, who arrived in Halifax Friday.
The Web site is helping besieged Swissair staff members cope with the media onslaught and focus on assisting the families of the victims, she said, adding that some of the telephone staffers have been awake for over 24 hours.
"Instead of faxing press releases to media outlets every couple of hours, we're pointing everyone to the Web," the spokeswoman explained, adding that the airline is doing everything it can to "keep reporters away from family members right now."
Less than five hours after the plane vanished from air traffic controllers' screens, Swissair posted a list of passengers on its Web site. Noted the spokeswoman, "We've learned that it is in everyone's best interest to disclose all information as soon as we learn it."
