<![CDATA[This study analyzes PT Kereta Api Indonesia's (PT KAI) crisis communication response strategies through official Instagram posts on @kai121_ during the January 2026 flood crisis, which resulted in the cancellation of 116 passenger trains, delays to 76 trains, and affected 333,788 passengers. The objective of the study is to categorize PT KAI's crisis communication response strategies based on Coombs' (2007) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) framework, chronologically organized by crisis phase. The study employed a descriptive qualitative approach using content analysis on nine posts selected via purposive sampling, covering three phases: Pre- crisis/Initial Response (January 15-16), Ongoing Response/Maintenance (January 17-19), and Resolution/Post-crisis (January 20). The results indicate that PT KAI adaptively employed a combination of three SCCT strategies: Rebuild in six posts, Bolstering in two posts, and Diminish in one post. The Rebuild strategy dominated the entire period, particularly during the Ongoing Response phase, characterized by explicit apologies, expressions of empathy, and compensation in the form of a 100% refund policy. This choice exceeded the minimum SCCT threshold for a victim-cluster type crisis, indicating that PT KAI, as a national public service operator, prioritized customer accountability as the primary focus of its crisis communication. Two critical notes were found: the speculative use of Bolstering on January 16 before the crisis had fully subsided, and inconsistency in framing within a single day on January 17 when the Diminish and Rebuild strategies were used sequentially.]]>
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