Asiana Airlines to sue KTVU-TV over fake pilot names blunder

San Francisco's KTVU Channel 2 news incorrectly named the crew of the doomed Boeing 777, which crashed killing three people, as Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk and Bang Ding Ow

Blunder: KTVU-TV reports fake pilot names

Asiana Airlines is planning to sue the US TV station which reported racially offensive fake names of the pilots involved in the fatal San Francisco plane crash.

The airline claims KTVU-TV Channel 2 damaged its reputation with the sickening on-air blunder.

The San Francisco news channel says it was duped into incorrectly naming the captain of the doomed Boeing 777 as Sum Ting Wong.

The other crew members on board the aircraft, which crashed at San Francisco airport killing three people, were identified as Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk and Bang Ding Ow.

Asiana has decided to sue KTVU-TV to "strongly respond to its racially discriminatory report" that disparaged Asians, spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said.



The presenter even assured viewers that the names had been confirmed by the USA air safety authority, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Moments after the on-air gaffe, the female newsreader was forced to issue an apology.

"Earlier in the newscast we gave some names of pilots involved in the Asiana Airlines crash," Ms Campbell said.

"These names were not accurate despite an NTSB official in Washington confirming them late this morning. We apologise for the error."

The show's producer, Brad Belstock, tweeted "Oh sh*t" as he realised the station had been hoaxed, before deleting his Twitter account altogether.

The station later posted an apology on its website, which read: "Nothing is more important to us than having the highest level of accuracy and integrity, and we are reviewing our procedures to ensure this type of error does not happen again."

NTSB also apologised for the blunder, claiming an intern had "outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft".

However it remains unclear where the fake names originated from.

NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said: "The names were presented by the station, to the intern for confirmation. The intern did not make up the names and provide them to the station."

Killed: Teenagers Ye Mengyuan (L) and Wang Linjia

Two Chinese teenage girls were killed when the Asiana Airlines flight 214 slammed into a sea wall and lost its tail on landing last Saturday.

A third victim, a young Chinese girl, died from her injuries in hospital on Friday.


Early investigation indicates the pilots, a trainee and his instructor, failed to realise until too late that the aircraft was dangerously low and flying too slow.