Newscast from KTVU unbelievingly announcing pilot names like a scene from ‘Animal House’.
KTVU, a San Francisco Bay Area news station, announced on its noon show Friday incorrect names for the pilots of Asiana flight 214 that crashed on Saturday July 6, 2013 at San Francisco airport.
Names that were read and presented with onscreen graphics (as they were spelled by KTVU):
“Sum Ting Wong,”
“Wi Tu Lo,”
“Ho Lee Fuk”
“Bang Ding Ow.”
The names apparently were pranked on the teleprompter and on television display graphics. To make matters worse, the KTVU station that originally announced the prank names, later issued an apology that falsely claimed that they never said the names.
NTSB statement on erroneous confirmation of crew names
July 12
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.
NTSB Press Release
So we really don’t know who to believe. KTVU is reported to be the Fox-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area, but there are no Fox logos on their website or on their video subtitles. Some cached versions of the website have reference to Fox, but can’t be found on the current website. The official Facebook ABOUT section only reads, “KTVU Channel 2 is the Bay Area’s #1 TV News Station” KTVU reports with an apology that they never read the names out loud, phonetically sounding them out.