Picture by cknapp from ireport.com

A dramatic event that turned into an enormous relieve. Hours ago, a US Airways Airbus A320 plunged into the Hudson River, New York City. Within the hour, it became clear that all passengers and crew got out safely and that no passengers are seriously injured. For the first time ever, a passenger jet landed on water without a single seriously injured passenger. As far as I know, a perfect landing never took place before in the history of commercial aviation. Remarkable. Miraculous. Heroic!

Apart from this tragedy that quickly turned into a great relieve for the passengers and crew, their relatives, US Airways and the City of New York, this accident is a remarkable example of how crisis communication evolves.

As one of the world’s top airlines, US Airways has a crisis communication plan ready at all times to quickly anticipate on whatever tragedy might strike. Press releases were issued instantly, special phone numbers for relatives and media contacts were made available. Within an hour, the company’s CEO gave a press conference on international television, underlining the excellent support their company will provide to those who are in need of information. He also made an effort to bring under everyone’s attention that the flight crew’s excellent training lead to the outcome of what could have been much, much worse.

CNN quickly came on with pictures of the floating plane, uploaded by citizens on photo website Flickr. Minutes later, they present animations of the plane’s glide path with the help of Google Earth. Shortly afterwards, they even present a full profile of the flight’s captain, including his picture and track record. They simply found him on LinkedIn! Speaking about the influence of social media…

At the same time, the City of New York makes an interesting move, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg says live on CNN: “This is not the usual way people arrive in New York, but we will do everything possible to treat them in the most hospitable way.” I wonder if city promotion is appropriate so shortly after a major incident - despite the outcome - but it would be interesting to discuss! What are your thoughts? Leave a comment!

The housing market is collapsing (or has already), gas prices are high and our income stabilizes or goes down. Banks fall out of the sky, governments bail them out. Every day, we are brainwashed by news and information about our bad economy, through television, internet, radio and newspapers. If that isn’t enough, it is the talk of the day at the office, in public transport, at birthday parties and in the supermarket line. I said to myself: It’s enough!

Like with nearly everything around us, economy is being shaped by the collective mind of all of those who are part of it. As employee, entrepreneur or consumer, you are part of it. Your supply is based on demand, and your demand is satisfied by supply. If demand rises, and supply doesn’t, prices go up, and the demand will drop again. If prices go up, you can buy less. As soon as people notice that, they want more salary. As soon as they get their few percent rise, they can buy again, and demand rises. To support the rising demand, supply has to increase, which means more production, more jobs and lower prices. And so on, and so on. Obviously, economics is a lot more complicated than that, but this is one of the basics.

Why does the economy goes bad? At some point, when things are going really well, a simple psycological impulse can turn the tide: “It’s going so well, but it can’t stay like this forever, so let’s save some money now that I can afford.” That means people spend less, and save more, and less spending leads to lower demand while supply has been high. So… prices drop, or stay high, but income usually doesn’t, so companies start to see their profits dropping. They start firing people, restructure their company, or otherwise, and economics start to panic. And so does the public. Recession starts.

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