Broadcast news station in San Francisco has issued an apology after falling for a possible prank, which resulted in the station using fake, racist names when identifying the pilots of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 that crashed at San Francisco International Airport July 6. The news station said that it called the National Transportation Safety Board Friday and were given names such as "Sum Ting Wong" and "Wi Tu Lo" among a handful of others when asked if it knew the identities of the flight crew, the CS Monitor reported. The reporter did not ask the source for his or her name or position at the board.
KTVU said that it called the NTSB back for verification, to which they were directed to a summer intern who confirmed the claims. The news network said it did not sound the names out before putting them on air.
"We heard this person verify the information without questioning who they were and then rushed the names on our noon newscast," KTVU wrote in its apology.
The network also apologized for the error at a later newscast that same day. The identity of the person who originally gave out the names to the station has not yet been discovered, the Los Angeles Times reported. The NTSB has also come under scrutiny for its choice to reveal a substantial amount of information to the public so soon after the crash. The board typically waits for a period of months before revealing details of such events. It said that it's had its hand forced by the Internet age, where information is in high demand, but can also been misconstrued and transform into rumors and unwarranted claims. Pilots and aviation organizations said this, however, is putting too much pressure on the Korean airline and misleading the public.
"It is imperative that safety investigators refrain from prematurely releasing the information from on-board recording devices," said the Air Line Pilots Association in a statement. "We have seen in the past that publicizing this data before all of it can be collected and analyzed leads to erroneous conclusions that can actually interfere with the investigative process."
The airline has already been heavily questioned after the plane clipped the sea wall at the airport, lost its tail and spun out along the runway before it caught fire. The pilot, now accurately identified as Lee Kang-Kuk, only had 43 hours of experience flying 777's, but had more than 10,000 hours of flight experience, making him qualified to fly the plane. It is believed, however, that he was trying to gain more experience with 777's during the flight that resulted in a crash. The NTSB also released the following statement Friday evening:
The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots. A summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft. We work hard to ensure that only appropriate factual information regarding an investigation is released and deeply regret today's incident. Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.
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