A business crisis can happen at anytime at any company.  When the story hits the media, you have a communications crisis to contend with as well.  High-profile individuals can be in the same boat.  A swift response is needed.  I'm not talking about a knee-jerk reaction, but a well-thought-out plan put into place quickly to stop the story from growing even worse.  Some people get it and others fail to grasp the seriousness of their situation.

• Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after a disastrous appearance before the House Oversight Committee. In the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle demanded answers.  They got few.  She appears to have misjudged just how bad a spot she was in.  
• Shares of CrowdStrike are still falling in the wake of its faulty software update that disrupted major airlines, banks and other businesses worldwide last week.  And Delta Airlines is still not back to business as usual following the outage.  Apologies won't be enough to make this story go away.  It exposed the vulnerabilities of major airlines relying on the same cybersecurity service with no backup.  And it is shining a bright light on Delta. Why is the airline still in crisis mode while others are fully back? The Transportation Department is investigating Delta operations.  Rebuilding trust with passengers will take time and compensation.  
•  Olympic Champion Charlotte Dujardin won't be competing as planned in Paris. The British dressage champ has been banned from the games after a video surfaced which shows her repeatedly whipping a horse.  The horsewoman said she is  "deeply ashamed" by what she calls "an error in judgment" in a coaching session four years ago.  While that's a good first step it will take much more to repair her reputation.   She needs to do some real work in animal welfare and if she returns to coaching she needs to be transparent about her training methods.

It is possible to fully recover from even the worst communications crisis. But if you falter right out of the gate, it will be harder.  Playing the blame game is a bad idea.  So is trying to avoid the media at all costs.  Instead deal with the media on your own terms.  Perhaps your CEO does a single sit-down interview with a journalist you believe is fair.  Or you provide a videotaped message on social media to start.

A heartfelt apology, an action plan to make sure the problem won't happen again and tangible things to help those impacted by your mistakes, should be a part of your recovery plan.  A day or two of bad press is one thing, but if it hangs on beyond that, it's trouble.  

Of course other breaking news stories will come along to take the heat off of you.  But a lot of damage can be done before that happens.  That's why you need to have a crisis communications plan in place and your executive team should be media trained.  At least that gives you a head start if/when a crisis occurs.