KTVU Channel 2, a Fox affiliate in the San Francisco Bay Area, has issued an apology on Friday after an on-air blunder by an anchorwoman that involved fake names of Asiana flight 214 pilots.
During the noon newscast Friday, co-anchor Tori Campbell told viewers that "KTVU has just learned the names of the four pilots who were on board" the flight that crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, killing two passengers.
She proceeded to read the names that obviously originated as a joke online - "Sum Ting Wong," "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk," and "Bang Ding Ow"— as a TV graphic displayed the names next to a photo of the charred cabin.
"We made several mistakes when we received this information," KTVU's apology on its website read. "KTVU accepts full responsibility for this mistake."
In seeking to verify the names with the National Transportation Safety Board, an unidentified KTVU reporter who made the call to the government agency's public affairs office didn't read the names out loud. KTVU didn't clarify how the names were conveyed to the NTSB representative, who turned out to be a summer intern.
The KTVU reporter also failed to ask for the identify of the NTSB intern who confirmed the spellings of the names.
"We heard this person verify the information without questioning who they were and then rushed the names on our noon newscast," KTVU's note read.
The NTSB also issued its apology late Friday afternoon 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," its statement said. "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."
