ANY public relations person worth their salt will tell you the art of the job is managing an unmanageable situation.
Consider Kim Choi, whose accounts include both Virgin and Ansett Airlines. In the course of duty, Kim shepherded a team of Hong Kong hacks on a jolly up and down the eastern seaboard of Australia, showing them such newsworthy spots as casinos in Queensland and amusement parks in New South Wales.
While at Ansett headquarters in Melbourne, and with her charges otherwise engaged, she met with management to talk about contingency plans in case of an emergency.
No need here to spell out what such an airline emergency would be. Anyway, in the middle of the session the telephone rang: the nosewheel of an Ansett 747 had collapsed on landing in Sydney.
None of the 253 passengers was hurt but the plane was left stranded on the runway grinding its nose (usually the bit where the first-class passengers sit) into the tarmac.
Never has such an emergency plan been put to the test so quickly. Barely had the phone been replaced on the cradle than Kim was the only one left in the room as her colleagues headed to battle-stations.
