On Friday morning, May 15, many residents of the Helsinki metropolitan area were awakened by the sound of fighter jets. The Finnish Air Force had ordered its Hornets to respond to a suspected drone threat targeting the Helsinki and Porvoo region. As it happens, Neste’s oil refinery is located there.
A threat alert was published at 3:49 a.m. on national broadcaster YLE and other news websites, as well as on the national 112 emergency app. The region’s 1.8 million residents were advised to stay indoors. I woke up at five when the phone rang.
The danger was over at 7:06 a.m. At a press conference held at noon, the staff of Defense Forces and the Ministry of the Interior praised each other for how smoothly their cooperation had worked. It turned out that information about the threat had been first received as early as 1 a.m., hours before the emergency was declared. The measures from receiving threat information to when the Hornets took off had gone as planned.
However, communication to the citizens was far from convincing. The civil administration was also caught off guard. According to press sources, the mayor of Helsinki woke up at six o’clock and was informed of the emergency situation two hours after it had been declared.
The drone threat revealed gaps in crisis communication
The sleeping mayor proved that we have gaps in the operational chain of command for crisis communication.
The understandably scarce information provided after the incident left it unclear how rescue services and healthcare were informed of the emergency situation. At the Prime Minister’s press conference, a representative of the Defence Forces commented that no way there would be time to take care of everyone separately. Well, certainly not if an automatic solution had not been prepared and practiced.
To sum up, the course of the measures has not been planned sufficiently, and management responsibilities have not been clearly defined – or they did not work. One way or another, communication has not been considered as important as flying. But civil administration must also be mobilised if there is a real threat to the population.
The Prime Minister skillfully concealed his frustration. Only a wry comment about the government having already granted funding for the warning system last year showed what he really thought. Perhaps the Prime Minister should consider organising a tender for crisis communication simulation. It doesn’t cost much, and communication consultancies are ready to act quickly.
Then even the Mayor of Helsinki could sleep with at least one eye closed.