A crisis is one of the trickiest things that companies, organizations and municipalities can be forced to deal with. That is why the majority has such a hard time doing it right. Why is that?

First and foremost, there is never enough information in a crisis. In this internet-age, 24-hour news cycle, where we don’t wait for the five o’clock news any longer, the more information we hear during a crisis, the better.

Case in point, Thursday, January 15th, a slow news day turned suddenly very busy when a US Airways jet ditched following take off from New York’s La Guardia Airport and landed in the Hudson River. Immediately dubbed “Miracle on the Hudson,” the pictures, rescues and stories have been etched into our memories. Why is that?

It was a compelling and improbable survival story. Plus, there was also no lack of information! All of the New York media had helicopters showing live video. All immediately reported there was a “double bird strike.” There were immediate graphics of the flight path of the jet. There were photographers capturing amazing pictures of passengers standing on the wings of the Airbus 320. And there were people talking to the media in droves. From the Mayor, EMS and NY Waterway officials holding news conferences to the passengers and breaking news sound bites, the media fed on every word and so did the public. It seems we couldn’t get enough.

There were network special reports, commercial free coverage on all the cable news channels and oh yes, the Internet. This was a success story because of the heroes on board the flight, the emergency workers on the ground and the leaders calling the shots, all in perfect concert all revealing key information about the incident. We would not have had this fortunate outcome without safety training for the pilot and the emergency operations training by all of the first responders in New York City.

This was a shining example of how everyone can lend a hand to save lives. Hopefully all companies, organizations and municipalities can learn from this incident, have a plan, execute a plan and show the world how to do crisis communications right!