The Gendarmerie and the Germanwings crash: managing emotions at work

On 24 March, 2015 at 10 :41 am, a Germanwings Airbus crashed into the Vernet mountain in the Trois Evêchés range, in the southern French Alps. There were 144 passengers and 6 crew on board. Nobody survived.
Gendarmes from the mountain rescue unit based in Digne les Bains were informed and immediately dispatched a helicopter to the area. There, they saw the wreck of the plane.
In the next few hours, the Provence Alpes Côted'Azur (PACA) Gendarmerie units had to organise and take strategic decisions in order to deal with this exceptional crisis. It also required tasking, steering and disaster management skills. As the lead organisation, the Gendarmerie had four missions to accomplish: investigating the causes of the accident; identifying victims; preventing access to the crash site; and securing the area for the visits of victims' families.
Given the exceptional nature of the catastrophe and the level of emotional and physical trauma experienced by operatives in the field, the Gendarmerie high command quickly realised that a certain number of measures had to be taken to minimise the risks of amplifying the crisis due to emotional factors.

Understanding the concept of emotional intelligence and appreciating its importance within organisations:
- Enabling learners to take strategic decisions from a managerial perspective in organisations;
- Improving learners'analytical capabilities;
- Enabling learners to understand what is at stake in crisis management where the situation is complex and emotions run high;
- Allowing learners to step back and assess complex situations calmly.

Crisis management - Managing emergency operations - Handling PSR

Management schools, universities, executive education; specific training for public service officials on crisis management

Service public

- Video: to project for students (by link)
- Main focus is on discussion questions

Année de la problématique : 2017

Livraison : Livraison par lien de téléchargement

Nombre de pages : 23 avec 9 page(s) annexe(s)

Temps d'utilisation : plus de 3 heures

Code du secteur d'activité : 75 - Administration publique