DFB team up in the air and now everyone’s taking off: Crisis communication for Lithuanian airline

While there was not much commotion, the media response was gigantic: At the beginning of September, the charter plane of the German national team had to make an unscheduled landing on its way to Frankfurt. The reason: a problem in the power supply, which ultimately led to the pilots flying to the nearest accessible airport in accordance with the safety regulations of the aircraft manufacturer and the aviation authorities.

The event was not declared an emergency landing in accordance with the applicable regulations of international aviation, and the mood on board remained relaxed throughout. Such events are not pleasant, but they can occur. Fortunately, all central components in a passenger aircraft have at least double, and in the case of the power supply even triple, redundancy – there was no substantial danger to the crew or passengers at any time.

Such incidents are not as rare as one might think. For example, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was stuck twice in 2019 due to technical defects on government aircraft. And just recently, a Lufthansa flight from Munich to Chicago also had to return to Munich due to a breakdown.

WORDUP PR took over the communication for this project “on the fly” the day after the incident and wrote the German language press release. WORDUP CEO Achim von Michel also acted as spokesperson for the Lithuanian airline Klasjet in Germany and thus ensured smooth communication between German journalists and Klasjet headquarters. The article in the WELT summarizes the process in great detail.