Asiana plans to sue TV station after report of fake pilot names
The airline claims bogus names laced with racial epithets that were confirmed by a NTSB intern and read on the air by KTVU have damaged the company’s reputation. UPDATE: The intern has been fired.
Oakland’s KTVU-TV broadcast the names of what they thought were the four pilots aboard the crash. The names they reported, which can be seen in the video below, were confirmed by the NTSB intern in question:
The station offered an on-air apology and the following statement from its vice president and general manager, Tom Raponi:
“We sincerely regret the error and took immediate action to apologize, both in the newscast where the mistake occurred, as well as on our website and social media sites. 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.”
The NTSB issued the following statement after the broadcast: “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.”
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