Story highlights
- Airline says it sent text as part of its efforts to notify families before media reported the news
- Communications experts say every person should have been contacted personally
- Texts don't allow for interaction, one expert says; another adds it lacks warmth of human voice
For weeks, families of the passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 endured an agonizing wait -- desperate for word of the fate of their loved ones. But when the first piece of definitive news finally arrived, for some of them it came not from a personal phone call or meeting, but a text message.
"Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived. As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia's Prime Minster we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean," it read in English.
The CEO of the airlines said it was the best way to reach the family members who Malaysia Airlines didn't reach by phone or talk to in person. But to many communications experts it was a cold and distant way for someone to find out their relative was dead.
The partner of missing passenger Philip Wood told reporters by e-mail that she received a text message just minutes before a Monday news conference in which Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak delivered the news that the last known position of the plane was in the middle of the ocean with no place to land but the water.
Sarah Bajc said in her e-mail the announcement didn't bring closure, because there was no mention of debris confirmed to be from the plane. She didn't say in her message whether she was put off by finding out by text; instead she was focused on taking some time to grieve.
Photos: The search for MH370
Photos: The search for MH370
Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board.
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Photos: The search for MH370
On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft.
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Photos: The search for MH370
In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370.
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Photos: The search for MH370
The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived."
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Photos: The search for MH370
Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet.
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Photos: The search for MH370
U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Chinese police at the Beijing airport stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight 370 in red on March 8, 2014.
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Photos: The search for MH370
Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a news conference at a hotel in Sepang on March 8, 2014. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said.
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'Eventually something will come to light' 03:22
Working to pinpoint missing plane 04:59
The deep sea robot search for 370 01:57
Other methods
Malaysia Airlines said the text messages were sent after other attempts to reach the victims' relatives.
"Wherever humanly possible, we did so in person with the families or by telephone, using SMS only as an additional means of ensuring fully that the nearly 1,000 family members heard the news from us and not from the media," Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said, adding that they had little time to deliver the news before it was known to the world.
For the past 16 days, the families have been begging officials for more news about what happened to the plane and the 239 people on board. They've been critical of how slowly some of it was disseminated.
CNN's Sara Sidner, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur where many relatives of the victims had gathered Monday, said the grieving families were upset but didn't care how the message was delivered.
"At this point they don't really care how the information got to them, they care that they were briefed, they care that they now know something more about what might have happened to their family members," she said.
Still, it appears some family members were notified initially by text, something many public relations experts said was another communications misstep for the airline.
Texts lack warmth, empathy
Doing so was "insensitive, inappropriate and very unproductive in attempting to resurrect your image and credibility," aviation law expert and crisis consultant Robert Alpert Sr. said.
A La Salle University communications professor said it still probably wasn't the right medium to use.
"Whether a text message should be used at all in this situation is debatable," said Michael Smith. "Until all the families are personally notified, it seems an insensitive way to communicate this news. You warn people of an emergency via text message; you don't tell them their loved ones have died via text."
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Paul Levinson, a professor at Fordham, agreed and added that a text is cold compared with "the warmth of a human voice."
As Judith Glaser, the CEO of Benchmark Communications, put it, Malaysia Airlines is responsible for the people on the plane, and as such it needs to actively help people handle the most difficult situation of their lives.
"People need to have an empathetic ear," she said.
Rush to deliver news?
There are several basic things to consider in how to best send a message, said Tammy R. Vigil, an assistant professor of communication at Boston University.
How serious is it? How important is it? How timely is it? The context of the message (will this be the first word someone gets) is another factor in choosing the medium.
She said the medium always affects how the message -- and the messenger -- are viewed.
Psychologist Erik Fisher told CNN that he thinks officials didn't think through the emotional impact of the text, instead being too concerned with getting the news to the families quickly.
"Processing a text that ... confirms that your loved one is lost is painful," he said.
Mark W. Tatge, a professor at DePauw University's Center for Contemporary Media, wrote in an e-mail that he thinks the text message is symptomatic of a breakdown in the way society communicates. It is cheap, fast and efficient, but there's no emotion from either sender or recipient. Interaction is absent.
"We don't receive or see pained facial expressions," he said. "There is no uncomfortable body language that we can process and therefore alter the course of our communication message."
The experts were in consensus that the impersonal and imprecise nature of a short text is best saved for alerting families to attend a meeting or call for more information.
