Root Cause Analysis Tip: Accident Investigations in the Age of Twitter

Will social media change accident investigation?

That’s the topic  of a recent The Wall Street Journal article titled: “Friction Escalates In Air Crash Probe.”

It seems that NTSB Board Members are tweeting statements about accidents. Sometimes they haven’t even alerted the on-scene investigations. The article says this rush to distribute “facts” has caused the FAA and industry groups to speed up their internal investigations and responses.

Another game changer … Passenger cell phone videos! These get distributed on the news, and the investigators get them later.

Is your incident investigation process up to the rigors of a twitter raised generation that expects instant facts?

Have you thought about what you should do to coordinate press releases, Twitter comments of executives, and the need to be accurate when releasing accident information?

You must prepare for accident investigations before the accident happens, or you will be overwhelmed by events.