Originally Posted by
piper28
Now, whether this still works as well today as it would have 10+ years ago? That's probably more up in the air. Obviously in this era of social media and smartphones, information is far more at peoples fingertips than it used to be. There also seems to be a far larger inherent distrust in corporations these days then there was even just a decade ago, which could cause this type of behaviour to stand out far more amongst the general public than it it would have.
So I'd guess that until recently, it probably was a fairly effective tactic. Nowadays, it might be more likely to backfire on a company as people immediately scream "cover-up".
And backfire it should. This stinks of deceitful intent. "No, we have no crashed planes. Move along, nothing to see here. Pay no attention to the charred fuselage behind the curtain." It should be illegal. The idea that an airline would use their crisis management resources to do anything other than take care of their pax and employees is incredibly cynical.
ETA: That having been said, there's no reason that the wrecked aircraft should be left in public view longer than needed for rescue and investigative purposes. I parked on the Signature ramp at SFO a couple weeks ago, and the wreckage of the Asiana bird is still sitting outside, between Signature and the water. Put it in a hangar!