When Optus chief executive Stephen Rue faced senators on Monday, he and the telco’s top brass had a rare chance to rebuild trust after a catastrophic network failure linked to the deaths of multiple Australians.

Instead, they have dug the company deeper into crisis.

Rue, as the former long-time chief executive of NBN Co, has had plenty of experience being grilled by senators.

Optus CEO Stephen Rue (right) gives evidence at the inquiry on Monday alongside chairman John Arthur (centre) and former chairman Paul O’Sullivan.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But Rue’s performance and that of his lieutenants, including corporate affairs chief Felicity Ross and Gladys Berejiklian (who was present but did not give evidence), will do little to stem the bleeding as more than a quarter of Optus customers consider leaving the telco following its most recent outage.

The fiery questions from senators across the political spectrum reflect the public mood: one of anger, and shock that such severe – and in this case, fatal – incidents could keep happening.

The hearing exposed something more troubling than deliberate dishonesty: an organisation so tangled in process, hierarchy and risk aversion that it couldn’t mobilise critical information when lives were at stake – and couldn’t articulate why.

When accountability matters most, Optus has structured itself to avoid it.

The inquiry heard that a call centre worker discovered fatalities at 8.43pm on the Thursday. The information travelled about four hours later to an email that wasn’t opened until the Friday morning. Senior management, including chief........

© The Sydney Morning Herald