Rolls-Royce has faced tough safety questions after one of its jet engines blew out and forced a Qantas flight into an emergency landing. Crisis PR man Jonathan Hemus queries the manufacturer's response so far...

Scanning four articles from the FT, the Wall Street Journal, BBC.co.uk and The Guardian written on November 5 about the emergency landing of the Qantas Airbus 380, I read quotes from the following:

-    Qantas
-    Assorted passengers
-    The Australian Transport Safety Bureau
-    An analyst with BGC Partners
-    A supplier to Rolls Royce
-    An analyst from Agency Partners
-    A professor at Cass Business School
-    The head of research at HB Markets

Each of these disparate commentators gives their view of the incident with many speculating on the cause and providing insight into its implications for the engine manufacturer.

No Rolls Royce spokesperson is quoted directly in any of them.

Instead the BBC says that the company is “checking all the 380s in service”, the Guardian reports Rolls Royce as saying that “it would be inappropriate at such a very early stage to draw any conclusions from the incident”, the FT reports that Rolls Royce “has no immediate comment” and instead quotes a “source close to the company” who says “Rolls Royce has been informed and will investigate as quickly as it can”.  Click on to Rolls Royce’s website and you find a clinical 129 word statement which also fails to shed any further light on the situation.

Is this really the best way to protect a global reputation which is under serious attack (and a share price which is down around 10% in two days)?  Surely not.  Whilst Rolls Royce – the organisation most directly affected by last week’s incident - has sat tight-lipped on the sidelines, pretty much everyone else has filled the information vacuum with their views, most of them unhelpful to Rolls.  

Contrast this with Qantas whose chief executive Alan Joyce began communicating almost immediately and taking decisive action by grounding the A380s pending an investigation.  His words and actions will, I believe, protect Qantas from any reputational damage – he may even succeed in enhancing the airline’s long term reputation.

Meanwhile, the Rolls Royce communication strategy of non-engagement leaves its reputation bobbing along on an ocean of uncertainty driven by the unpredictable currents of events and third party comment.  It’s not a strategy that I would recommend.