(If you work in an airline or airport organisation and wish to download the slides, please email contact@simpliflying.com) On August 7, 2013, in the early hours of the morning, Nairobi's international airport terminal was engulfed in a major fire. This is a case study of blow-by-blow accounts of the incident online, from Tweets and Facebook updates coming from passengers, airlines airport and government authorities.

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JKIA Fire – Nairobi Airport Shuts Down
Case study & Analysis
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2. Stage 1: The news breaks

3. As we have seen in previous crises the first tweet often comes from
a tech savvy passenger that happened to be in the area when the
crisis starts. In this case it was a mobile and web developer that
tweeted at 5:03 local time just 28 min after the fire broke out.
Fire + 28 min : Tech savvy passenger tweets

4. The first tweets on the
topic from those on
site were confusing.
Surprise/panic was
evident both in the
language used and in
the typos, likely
caused by a
combination stress
and fast typing.
Early tweets are confusing

5. Twitter was already seeing
intense traffic on the #JKIA
airport topic due to a jet fuel
shortage that took place the day
before causing massive
cancellation and delays.
20 minutes after the initial tweet
and 48 min after the fire had
started a sudden change in the
#JKIA topic took place and all
tweets focused on the fire.
Fire +48 min: Conversation switch
5:18 local
time

6. Within minutes, the locals
started seeking more
information.
It is important to note that at
this stage the conversation
was not yet global, and still
focused on clarifying the
facts.
Users ask for information

7. At 5:23 am the first tweet directed at the airport appears, showing what
seems to be a first hand account from person who was inside the airport.
Fire + 52 min: first tweet directed at the airport

8. Due to the large amount of false
rumors that spread daily on the
internet it is fairly common to see
users asking for images of the events
both out of curiosity and as a way to
verify the veracity of the news .
In this case the first request appeared
in the 30 min following the first tweet.
At this stage many still considered the
news as a rumor.
Fire +55 min: request
for pictures

9. At 5:31 local time a passenger on
one of the planes parked in front
of the terminal starts tweeting
after seeing the fire.
His Twitter stream soon turns into
a live account of the events in
conversation with other users
outside the airport.
Fire +56 min tweets
from inside a plane

10. Whenever a tweeting passenger is
stuck on a plane during an emergency
situation it is very common for them to
become one of the most active users.
This is due to a combination of a lack of
information being provided inside the
plane, their inability to move to a safer
location, the stress/uncertainty derived
from the situation itself and of course
having plenty of time with nothing else
to do but look at the scene outside and
tweet.
The “stuck-in-the-plane” phenomenon

11. Just over an hour after the event the first tweet from the Red Cross
confirms the fire, from that moment onwards their Twitter handle will
become one of the main sources of reliable information on the issue.
Fire +67 min: Red Cross Responds

12. Just 13 minutes after users
started asking for images one is
tweeted by a Danish citizen who
was in the area.
Official confirmation of the event
reached Twitter just a minute
later dispelling doubts about the
reliability of the reports.
Fire +68 min: First image

13. In an unexpected move for such a crisis, the Interior Ministry of Kenya tweets
out the news and mentions local news channels.
This Twitter handle was extremely proactive throughout the crisis providing
updates, asking others to share the news and reaching out to the media,
something not often seen in official government related accounts.
Fire + 69 min: Interior ministry tweets

14. Five minutes after the confirmation from the interior ministry and after the
initial confusion on the news has settled the first event-based #tag starts
being used. It will become the second most used tag in this crisis,
following the generic #JKIA airport tag.
Fire + 74 min: #JKIAfire

15. It is important to note that
the #JKIAfire tag was not a
newly created tag, but had
previously been used on
two separate occasions in
June 2012 and February
2013 to report other fire-
related issues at the
airport.
The Phoenix tag

16. At 6:01 about 1.5h after it started the airport authority finally
confirms the fire on Twitter. The news quickly spreads with over
100 re-tweets .
Fire + 86 min: Airport confirms fire

17. The first airline to respond to this
crisis was Kenya Airways that
replied to a user’s request for
information just two minutes after
the airport had officially confirmed
the fire on Twitter.
Further updates from the airline
soon followed.
Fire + 88 min: The first airline responds

18. Despite constant mentions by hundreds of users and even a direct
mention by the interior ministry, local media did not start working on
the news until well over 1.5 hours from the event.
Slow reaction by local media

19. At 6:16 local time a reporter and anchor for local news station KTN
Kenya appears to have been the first professional journalist to have
reported the event. Her tweet was shared by KTN’s Twitter handle.
Fire + 101 min: Reporter tweets

20. Stage 2: Spread focus on the events

21. After 1.5 hours from the time the fire started, and about 1h from the time of
the first Tweet, the news had been confirmed and had reached mainstream
media.
From this point on, we could see a shift of the attention from an attempt to
verify and understand what had happened, to a more event-focused tweeting
aimed at communicating the details of the fire and update on the developing
situation (the terminal was still burning at this stage).
In the meantime, the news kept spreading and gradually reached other more
users who often went through a short version of Stage 1, attempting to verify
the news and sharing it with others.
Shift in Focus

22. The news slowly reached mainstream local media, and eventually made
its way to international media. Local channel NTV Kenya tweeted the
news at 6:45 local time and at 7:10 local time the news reached the BBC.
Mainstream media and global spread

23. Many people and companies started using Twitter to express their feelings and
wishes while others tried to help by asking people to stay off the roads and
allow emergency vehicles to do their job. This is another common feature of
large scale crises like this one.
Well wishers and helpers

24. Such was the volume of tweets (several thousands per hour) that the tags
#JKIA and JKIAfire soon became one of the most used on Twitter, tending
worldwide and in the region.
Trending

25. Once they had started reporting on the
news, media outlets quickly turned to
social media to gather information and
first hand accounts. A local TV station
used Twitter and the #JKIA tag to ask
users for images.
A Twitter user who was in the cockpit of
one of the planes stranded by the fire
promptly replied and his image was
widely shared by other users.
Media seeks details

26. One of the local news channels
appears to have scheduled tweets
about the fuel shortage that took place
the day before the fire at JKIA and
forgot to remove them once the fire had
started.
The result was a constant series of
tweets about fuel shortages appearing
while the airport was
burning, something that angered many
Twitter users.
Scheduled Tweets

27. Stage 3: Analysis and conspiracy theories

28. As more details of the event
emerged, users looked for
answers and tried to understand
the cause of the fire.
In most cases these were
genuine, although amateurish,
attempts to find the truth, but
often degenerated into a wide
range of speculations and
conspiracy theories.
Looking for answers

29. Sabotage, terrorism are typically among
the first theories to surface as users look
for individuals to blame for the event.
Recent events, like in this case the
closure of duty free shops at the airport,
are often immediately linked to the
events.
Sabotage, terrorism and conspiracy theories

30. For crises that involve a national symbol or
a government run facility like JKIA, political
debate is never far behind and often
surfaces at an early stage. In this crisis the
debate centered on the presence of senior
politicians on site and on the management
of the airport, with occasional references
and jokes on how foreign media were
reporting the story.
Politics

31. Another frequently seen source of
debate following these incidents are
suggestions of a supernatural
explanation usually connected to
religion or personal beliefs.
In JKIA’s crisis, as in most others,
the discussion was limited but it is
worth mentioning since in some
cases it can flare up heated
debates.
Supernatural theories

32. Unfortunately bad taste has no
borders, jokers are an almost
guaranteed feature of any crisis.
These people tend to become
active in stage 3 after the details of
the news have emerged and to
focus on stereotypes linked to race,
religion, politics and other sensitive
or controversial topics.
Jokers and Trolls

33. Airlines and customer service

34. Twitter proved once again to be “the” place to go for up-to-minute
news and information and many passengers that had to travel on
the day of the crisis naturally turned to the platform to seek
information about their flights.
After the initial delays, both authorities and airlines started
providing a constant feed of information through Twitter and used it
as one of their main communication channels.
The customer information highway

35. The two key elements in managing crises like this one from an airline
perspective are simple: reply to users asking for information and proactively
share any update available.
As we have seen earlier, Kenya Airways was the first one to reply and other
airlines in the region quickly followed.
Keeping people informed

36. Given the high stress levels of people who fear to have their flight
cancelled, it is extremely important to manage expectations. One way to do
it is to provide estimates as to when future updates will be provided.
Explaining what steps are being taken to assist users is also very important
to help maintain lower stress levels and be seen as a proactive brand.
Managing expectations

37. Given the instant nature of social media people tend to expect immediate
replies to all of their queries. If it is not possible to provide a response it is
very important to be open about the reason why the information cannot be
provided at that time.
Be open and honest

38. A very good way to build trust with
users is to add information on the
crisis from third parties, like
government agencies and news
channels.
Passenger affected will be
constantly looking for information
and sharing available updates
from third parties will reinforce the
image of the brand as proactive
and helpful.
Add information from other sources

39. One surprising element of this crisis was seeing how local airlines seemed
to outperform major international carriers in the management of this crisis.
Although this can partially be explained by the higher relevance of the
crisis for their operations it was also clear that local airlines were less
afraid of addressing the concerns directly and seldom re-directed users to
other websites and call centers.
Local airlines do it better

40. Air Uganda especially
surprised us when it went
as far as sharing images
of the fire taken by their
local team in Nairobi.
Other local airlines also
shared images sent by
users or news channels.
Images

41. Although the initial delay of over 1.5 hours
in confirming the fire seems hard to justify,
the overall handling of the social media
response by the airport was good.
Its constant updates also earned it the
praise from several grateful Twitter users.
Kenya Airports

42. Several airlines also extended their efforts
on Facebook to make sure customers
stayed informed and all questions were
answered.
Kenya Airways stood out for delivering 10
updates, one every hour, to keep its
followers updated on the situation.
The updates stopped when all domestic
flights could resume.
Facebook

43. Conclusions

44. As expected we saw a marked dominance of Twitter as the social network
during a crisis. This is due to its instant nature and strong mobile focus
which make it ideal to spread short messages very quickly. We saw a
peak in tweets while the fire was still burning and we now expect to see a
marked decline in the number of tweets as the crisis winds down.
Prevalence of Twitter

45. The way authorities used social media,
and especially Twitter to spread their
message has been perhaps one of the
most surprising aspects of this crisis, to
some extent they seemed to be far
ahead of their European and American
counterparts.
Throughout the crisis we have seen a
constant stream of tweets coming from
the interior ministry, crisis management
centers and airport authorities as well
as other organizations such as the Red
Cross
Usage by authorities

46. By analyzing the Tweets being sent using the #JKIA tag we could also
observe how user’s interest and focus changed over time. The first tag-cloud
was generated using Tweetarchivist on the day of the event and shows a
prevalence of news related tags like #JKIAfire and #Nairobi.
The second one, taken a day later with the same tool, shows a stronger
presence of operation related tags like “resume” and “flights” that suggest a
change in the conversation from a fire-related one to a operational one.
Trends

47. Another item that stood out while analyzing
the tweets was their source. Mobile based
applications dominated scene, a sign of the
platform’s “instant” nature.
Usage from mobile devices

48. Thanks to the recent introduction of
hashtags to Facebook we saw a more
structured and immediate conversation
taking place on this social network.
However the type of messages being
shared, with the exception of those
shared via Twitter, remained quite
different.
We saw a marked dominance of stage 2
and stage 3 content discussing the
news, sharing media links and offering
possible explanations.
Facebook hashtags

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