YouTube Video Shows KTVU-TV Incorrectly Identifies Asiana Pilots

—Written by Stacie Chan

News channel KTVU wrongly reported the names of the pilots on Asiana Flight 214 as “Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” and “Bang Ding Ow” Friday. 

This YouTube video catches anchor Tori Campbell reading the names aloud and failing to realize they were made up. 

Campbell said on air:
"KTVU has just learned the names of the four pilots who were on board of the flight. The NTSB has confirmed these are the names of the pilots on board Fight 214 when it crashed. We are working to determine exactly what roles each of them played during the landing on Saturday."

It was unclear at first how the station obtained the names, nor how the National Transportation Safety Board, which has been meticulous in its daily communications with the news media, could have confirmed incorrect names to KTVU, as the anchor reported.

KTVU shortly released a correction and apology: 

“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,” said Tom Raponi, KTVU/KICU Vice President & General Manager. “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.”

On Friday evening, the NTSB issued an apology for mistakenly confirming "inaccurate and offensive" names for the pilots.

The names were confirmed by a summer intern acting "outside the scope of his authority" in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, according to NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel. 

The NTSB does not release or confirm the names of crew members or people involved in transportation accidents to the media, Nantel said. 

"We work hard to ensure that only appropriate factual information regarding an investigation is released and deeply regret today's incident," Nantel said. 

"Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated," Nantel said. 

Flight 214 crashed on Saturday July 6 shortly before 11:30 a.m., killing three people and injuring dozens of others.

—Bay City News Service contributed to this report