Crisis can occur slowly or suddenly, but always causes of loss whether physically, emotionally or economically. It emerges from threats, urgency and destruction which is often on a monumental scale (Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 2003). In contrast with disasters, which cause injury or loss of life, a crisis is able to threaten reputations without killing (Seymour & Moore, 2000). The word of disaster and crisis are sometimes confused in use, both are different but interrelated. The difference between disaster and crisis is clearly defined by Shrivastava, et al (1988), who stated that disaster is an agent of crisis while Shaluf, et al (2003) stated a crisis may develop from political and economic issues as well as from disaster.

Let’s see the situation of Indonesian aviation. Indonesian airlines were banned by the European Union (EU) on 28 July 2007 from flying to Europe because Indonesian airlines failed to fulfil ICAO safety standards and this was supported by its high accident rate. The EU’s announcement threatened reputations and caused damage psychologically, emotionally and economically. It also created fear, uncertainties and chaos, or in other words, Indonesian aviation was in shock. This condition fulfils the criteria for a Crisis (Fink, 1986; Pauchant & Mitroff, 1992; Seeger et al., 2003; Weick, 1987), thus Indonesian aviation is in crisis.

The commercial airline era started after the First World War when the pilots of fighter aircraft used their ability to fly aircraft for business purposes (Hanlon, 1999; Wells, 1997). The growth of the aviation industry itself was launched after the Second World War and supported by the enactment of the United States Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. The value of the air transport market is very high, in fact, some occupations and trades would simply not be possible if air transport were not available, development of air transport was soon followed by other countries (Gillen & Morrison, 2005; Wells, 1997).

At the beginning of the twenty first century, the growth of the world aviation business started to collapse, triggered by the 9/11 tragedy in 2001. However, over-capacity in the market had been signalled in 2000 because the launch of Low Cost Carriers (LCC) in the early 2000s (Doganis, 2006). This condition was also supported by increased operational costs that resulted in stagnancy in the air transport industry (Doganis, 2006). In contrast with the aviation business, the developments of improvements in aviation safety in aircraft design and airline operation were not affected. The awareness of aviation safety is also supported by the uniqueness of this industry. Different from other types of industry, aviation is categorised as a seeking-reliability organization or a high hazard environment organization because if a crisis occurs, it will not only affect the aircraft, the victims or the particular airline, but also the entire aviation organization. Therefore, safety is essential in aviation. Studies related to aviation safety are needed because previous studies proved that developments in design and system safety made significant contributions to reducing the aviation accident rate (Liou, Tzeng, & Chang, 2007).

Aviation Safety

Safety is a crucial element in any complex socio-technological organization. Safety means dealing with risks, which is not easy but possible to achieve. It is highly desirable to improve safety to anticipate unpredictable events in the future. In commercial aviation, safety is one of the priorities. However, ever since “the Glider King” Otto Lilienthal invented the glider in 1891 and was killed in one of his experiments, world air transport has faced the same problem: accidents.