In this case, headlines flashed around the world in minutes encouraging millions of people to follow the drama. A robust strategy of early and ongoing media engagement, including our presence at the scene, allowed us to manage the story and avoid unhelpful speculation.

Immediate and effective monitoring is vital to understand if media traction is being gained. Here, we monitored and engaged with local community groups, environmental activists and political factions to ensure the true facts and likely impact were fully understood. Our rapid action prevented a full-scale media explosion based on guesswork and conjecture.

The overall response to this incident was managed by the US Coast Guard and we filled the “Public Information Officer” role within the Unified Command structure, working closely with the QI. Working within the Joint Information Centre (JIC) we ensure a steady stream of up-to-date information was supplied to the news agencies to counter the less accurate and critical sources.

Our aim was to provide support to the family of the deceased by managing the media and social media. It was important that relatives were not further upset by relentless and misleading comment. In addition, it was vital to take media pressure off the company and allow them to provide much needed support to the next of kin.

An attempted rescue at sea resulted in more than 250 million social posts and intense media scrutiny. Instead of accolades, one wrong word from those in authority spun a positive story into a relentless accusation of negligence and wrong-doing. Our rapid and decisive action secured a retraction of blame which we quickly shared with the media. As a result, the story was reversed and our client was publicly praised.