KTVU has apologized for wrongly naming the names of four pilots responsible for the Asiana plane crash last week. The news station released a series of racist names during a news report on Friday afternoon. Their information which they claim to have received from the National Transportation Safety Board stated that the pilots were identified as "Captain Sum Ting Wong", "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk", and "Bang Ding Ow.'
The racist names, which mocked the tragic plane crash, were reportedly given to the news station by an intern who worked for the NTSB.
The new station issued an on-air apology, along with apologies posted on Twitter, Facebook and their official website.
KTVU wrote: "We made several mistakes when we received this information. First, we never read the names out loud, phonetically sounding them out. Then, during our phone call to the NTSB where the person confirmed the spellings of the names, we never asked that person to give us their position with the agency. We heard this person verify the information without questioning who they were and then rushed the names on our noon newscast."
The names were announced by KTVU anchor Tori Campbell who shortly return to the same newscast on Friday to tell viewers that the names "were not accurate despite an NTSB official in Washington confirming them late this morning." She then said, "we apologize for this error."
Meanwhile, the NTSB also issued an apology regarding the false information.
"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 said in a statement. The intern was reportedly a student who volunteered his time to answer phones and should have passed on questions to official media representatives.
The names of the pilots involved in the plane crash are Lee Kang-kuk and his co-pilot Lee Jeong-min.
The gaffe comes amidst the news that a third passenger has died from the plane crash. The individual has only been identified as a young girl.
Click here for the video of the apology.
Watch the video of the gaffe below:
