Contrails

That was followed by five days of silence while Qantas and Airbus were left to fend off the media in Australia and around the world.

According to Flightglobal Professor Joseph Lampel of City University London’s Cass Business School maintains that Rolls-Royce was “doing almost everything wrong to manage what was rapidly threatening to become a public relations disaster.”

Professor Lampel notes, that “when there is no contradiction people naturally – though not necessarily rationally – start to create patterns between seemingly related incidents.”

The Trent 972 failure was quickly linked to the Boeing 787 Trent 1000 test bed failure at Derby in August, and the two Qantas 747 RB211 engine failures – one contained failure the next day and the uncontained failure in September on a San Francisco to Sydney flight.

Rolls-Royces silence was followed by another mistake of says Lampel of treating the problem as purely technical.

R-R faced a dilemma, as its reputation for engineering excellence was being undermined by a string of technical problems, but that reputation also wouldn’t be helped by making statements not well-supported by facts. Sources indicate the company opted to stay quiet rather than be seen entering into speculation itself.

Jonathan Hemus, the founder of British crisis management consultancy Insignia, said Rolls, which released just three short statements on the incident, should have communicated better with consumers.

Speaking with Reuters Hemus said: “It is all very well keeping your priority stakeholders posted but when you have members of the public wondering if it is a Rolls engine on the wing of the plane they are in I think it is in their interests to be told what is happening.”

And on a recent Qantas flight three passengers were overheard on boarding asking of the aircraft was powered by Rolls Royce engines.

At Qantas, CEO Alan Joyce filled the void laying the blame squarely with Rolls-Royce with daily updates on what was happening.

Even when the first Qantas A380 was put back into service Rolls-Royce CEO John Rose, who is famous for his reticence with the media, was nowhere to be seen, while Mr Joyce seized the moment to travel on the first flight.

Andrew Bruce Smith, founder of digital communications consultancy, escherman told Reuters that “Rolls basically ceded control of their communications and reputation to Qantas and that spooked investors who were left wondering who was in control.”

In the absence of any or scant official comment then the public and industry believe what they read and eventually the facts will emerge.

It would have been far better for Rolls-Royce to be on the front foot, show compassion and control the media and support their customers.

There is little doubt the brand has suffered as a result and both Qantas and Airbus a furious over the engine makers role in the engine failure.

In contrast Mr Joyce has been proactive and the Qantas media team prepared to front the media at virtually every opportunity.

A survey done by UMD has found that most Australians believe that Qantas has done a good job handling the A380 problem.

“The crisis has had little direct impact on the perceived safety of flying with Qantas, according to UMD Managing Director John Utting.

“However, despite this, there are significant doubts about where Qantas safety standards are heading. The proportion of Australians who believe that Qantas safety standards have worsened has increased from 50% to 58% since the engine explosion over Indonesia,” Mr Utting warned.

But worse is that there has been significant damage to A380 super jumbo brand with 3 out of 10 Australians saying they would not feel safe flying on this type of aircraft the UMD survey found.

“Airliners manufactured by the Boeing are perceived as safer than those manufactured by the Airbus,” Mr Utting said.

That perception was possibly behind Airbus COO John Leahy turning on Rolls-Royce during Qantas’s 90th birthday when he told media that the engine maker knew of the oil problems.

Qantas has certainly moved on from the dark days of its bunker mentality during QF1 in 1999 and is to be congratulated on its proactive stance on QF32.

Its time Rolls-Royce made as much noise as it engines!