This study examines government crisis communication and media framing of the Bangladesh Air Force jet crash. Guided by Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), framing theory, and ethics of care, we investigated official response strategies and media coverage of the crisis event. We employed a mixed-methods design that combined thematic analysis of government press releases with computational analysis of 544 news articles. Findings showed that government communication reflected SCCT-consistent strategies, including instructing and adjusting information, corrective action, transparency about systemic weaknesses, and bolstering through heroism and solidarity. Media coverage extended the crisis narrative beyond incident reporting by foregrounding human suffering and public accountability. The analysis also showed that care was communicated through ritualized mourning, victim-centered support, emotional listening, and moral recognition of sacrifice. Based on these findings, we propose a preliminary Care-Centered Government Crisis Communication Framework, showing how meaning-making and crisis legitimacy in state-involved aviation disasters are co-constructed through procedural responsiveness, moral recognition, and media-mediated accountability. The study contributes to crisis communication and government public relations scholarship by centering care, accountability, and cultural context in public-sector crisis response in South Asia.
