Emergency Contact Crowd and crisis management Home Latest updates News Crowd and crisis management 29 Oct 2018 Download Sign up for alerts Effective crowd and crisis management is paramount in managing an emergency on board passenger vessels. In the event of an emergency, passenger vessels face additional challenges to that of other vessel types, due to the added risk associated with passengers and therefore, crew need to be more vigilant and show greater awareness of the risks that are faced. To manage behaviour in a crisis, it is first necessary to understand the roles and rules of passengers and crew separately. Roles and rules Passengers Passengers usually perform an everyday role away from a vessel and will naturally continue this when they are on board. They will combine this with the role of a passenger, however, the perception of the role will be determined by the abilities of the company, ship, officers and crew. If passengers are confident in the crew’s abilities, then they will follow orders and behave appropriately in emergency situations. Officers and crew Crews have predetermined everyday roles on board which they are very familiar with. In addition to their usual duties, they should also have clearly defined responsibilities in the event of an emergency. To improve familiarity and competency with these defined tasks, emergency drills should be carried out regularly. The difference between these two groups of people is that passengers need to be informed of their roles during an emergency, whereas the roles of officers and crew should already be clearly defined. Crisis Behaviour To better understand and react to the behaviour of a passenger in a crisis Odyssey Training have defined four stages of a crisis; Warning , Impact , Evacuation and Post-event Reaction . At each stage the pattern of behaviour will change as the passenger is influenced by the effects of the crisis. Warning The way that people react to warning signs differs depending on the role t