A Fox affiliate in San Francisco issued a report stating that they had confirmed the names of the 4 pilots were aboard the crash of Asiana 214 last Saturday. The only problem is that it was a prank. All four names were plays on words that created profane or crass remarks toward the plane crash. The fake names, that both appeared written on the screen and were recited by the reporter, were “Sum Ting Wong,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” “Wi Tu Lo,” and “Bang Ding Ow.”
The KTVU anchor appeared later to apologize for the mistake. Editors for the news station say they had contacted the NTSB to double check the names, of which the NTSB confirmed, allowing the report to go through. The NTSB later issued the following statement, acknowledging the error and blaming the erroneous confirmation on a summer intern.
“The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6.
Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft.
The NTSB does not release or confirm the names of crewmembers or people involved in transportation accidents to the media. 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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