What has surprised me the most is that a B2C mega brand household name has done such a shabby job in the PR department. I used to work in a different part of the transportation business, however this was cargo. None of these were household names, however my first employer had a very public incident off Australia and my third another near another which also became a headline story in the U.K. Media. At all three companies I worked we had an emergency response team which included a named list of participants. Drills were held several times a year, and part of the drill was to send out regular press releases and make a spokesperson available to external parties (media, customers, families etc). For major incidents like this there would be press conferences. All employees were discouraged from speculating when contacted by third parties and refer everybody to the press contact, however the official communiques would contain a brief explanation of the incident and that we would come back with more information as it became available. I'd be surprised if BA have not held similar drills, but even if they haven't this is a massive fail on management's part.