The confusion that followed the Paria diving tragedy, which claimed four lives, could have been avoided with better crisis communications and treatment of anxious relatives, according to one of the world’s leading crisis management and mass fatality experts Robert A Jensen.
The first indication that something went wrong on February 25, on what should have been a routine maintenance dive at one of Paria’s underwater pipelines, was at approximately 3 pm, after the crew saw suction bubbles. The company’s first communication to the public came at 8 53 pm, roughly six hours later that day.
“The timeline was never going to work if there weren’t things put in place before an event,” Jensen, chairman emeritus of Kenyon International Emergency Services, told Guardian Media.
“Part of any good crisis management plan is having statements. You should have the first three statements ready to go that can be released in minutes. I think that that timeline, without knowing the communications system of the area, is too long.”
Jensen has spent most of his life dealing with crises around the world, mostly mass fatality events. He and his firm have been sought after by companies and governments worldwide for major events like the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the United States, the Grenfell Tower fire in the UK, the Haiti earthquake and multiple aeroplane disasters, bombings and terrorist attacks.
As a divemaster, he has also been following closely the tragedy of the four divers here in Trinidad and Tobago from Key West, where he has now retired. He believes there were gaps in Paria’s response.
“What I see is a lot of confusion,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.
“I see some finger-pointing and I see stuff that is not helpful to the families. And I think they’ve probably made it much harder than they had to make it,” he added.
Asked if he were hired to manage the aftermath of this incident what he would do, Jensen outlined several factors, but none more important than the treatment of the divers’ relatives.
He said, “The first thing to remember is the families are the audience, families are the consumers here and life will never be the same for them.”
Once the accident has occurred, he explained, “The best thing you can do is zero because you can’t bring back the dead, so the best you can do is not make it worse.”
And not making it worse requires that relatives know first. He said within 30 to 45 minutes, they should have been alerted. While Paria has indicated that it communicated directly with immediate family, some have challenged the quality of communication and treatment they received from the company.
“You get the family, you assign someone to be their representative to help them navigate what to expect, what’s next, what are the investigation processes, how long should that take place,” he explained, as oftentimes, many relatives have not been through a traumatic event like this before. With decades of experience handling events that have led to loss of live, he said compassion, caring and honesty go a long way in comforting families and mitigating fallout.
“And then there are some basic things you do such as, pretty quickly, is a letter of sympathy, it’s not a letter of defence, it’s not written by a lawyer or insurer, it’s written from one person to the next saying I am sorry that this has happened,” he said.
“Whether your company was negligent, or it was an accident or a natural disaster doesn’t matter, you’re the leadership of the company and the families are looking to you for help,” Jensen also said.
The news conference held by Paria also came too late, Jensen said when asked about the time the company faced the public.
Paria held a news conference on February 27, two days after the incident.
According to Jensen, these things can build distrust.
“If people feel they’ve been lied to or mistreated, they won’t want to talk to you,” he said.
That’s an important factor considering, he said, some of the information that may be revealed will be difficult for the relatives and it must come from people they trust.
Jensen also emphasised the need for continuous communication that clearly states what is known and not known and the setting up of a media centre for easy access to information.
He also advises against communicating via WhatsApp in a situation like this, as Paria did when it set up a WhatsApp communication group with the divers’ families.
He did not want to comment on the decisions not to send in divers to rescue the men, but advised that there should be transparency with the public in all decisions that have been taken.
Jensen said, “I can understand that the people making decisions at the time are using the best information available to them, and they will weigh the risk of it. We weigh the risk going in to recover bodies; is it worth injuring or hurting a person to recover somebody you believe is deceased. That puts a different parameter than going in to rescue somebody you’re pretty sure is still alive or has a chance. So, I don’t know why the decision was made because I don’t know the facts. I do know that answering that question without any type of public relations spin without any type of equivocation is going to be hugely important for building trust with the families and the community.”
