NTSB Press Release 
 
 National Transportation Safety Board 
 
 Office of Public Affairs 
 
 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. 
 
 Office of Public Affairs 
 
 490 L'Enfant Plaza, SW 
 
 Washington, DC 20594 
 
 (202) 314-6100 
 
 Kelly Nantel 
 
 kelly.nantel@ntsb.gov 
 
 ### 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent federal agency charged with determining the probable cause 
 
 of transportation accidents, promoting transportation safety, and assisting victims of transportation accidents and their families. ||||| Latest Update, July 14: Asiana Airlines, not surprisingly unamused by the whole thing, thinks an on-screen apology may not be sufficient, it said in a statement: 
 
 "The reputation of the four pilots and of the company had been seriously damaged by this report. The company is reviewing taking legal action against both KTVU-TV and the NTSB." 
 
 
 
 Update: The NTSB has released a statement stating an intern is responsible for confirming the incorrect names. Sounds like someone's summer internship is over. 
 
 KTVU has also provided further explanation into why they said these names on air: They didn't say them out loud before rattling them off during their live taping and they didn't confirm with the NTSB employee (intern) on their position within the organization. They did, however, call to verify the correct spelling of the names. 
 
 
 
 Update: Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the NTSB, just confirmed to SF Weekly that the NTSB did not release the names of the pilots of flight 214 to KTVU, or any news organization, for that matter. 
 
 
 
 Original Story: Local station KTVU totally screwed up the names of Asiana Flight 214 pilots when announcing them on live television today, and we're a little worried the name "Ho Lee Fuk" might actually go down in history. 
 
 So just to correct the record: The ill-fated Boeing 777 wasn't actually being steered by Mr. Fuk and his co-pilots Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, and Bang Ding Ow. 
 
 KTVU rushed to fix the blunder and issued an apology,blaming the NTSB for the fuck-up. The apology didn't do much to stop screenshots of the offensive names from making their rounds through the blogosphere. 
 
 Oh, look -- here they are: 
 
 And here's a video of the newscaster announcing the names with complete sincerity -- with "Fuk" pronounced "Fook," lest you suspect the station of impropriety: 
 
 Note: Asiana actually released the names of two pilots -- the ones allegedly responsible for the botched landing -- on Sunday. Junior pilot Lee Gang-guk had 43 hours of experience flying the Boeing jet; his supervisor Lee Jeong-min tried to take over to abort the crash. 
 
 Someone call Ron Burgundy, this is a story for him. ||||| On today’s Noon newscast on KTVU, the station claimed it had “just learned the names of the 4 pilots on board” Asiana flight 214 which crashed last Saturday. But the station was given bad information that made it all the way into the newscast. If you read the names it becomes immediately clear this is a joke, which went unnoticed by the newsroom, producers and the anchor. 
 
 You’ll recall earlier this week, KTVU touted its coverage as being not only first, but “100% accurate.” 
 
 “Being first on air and on every platform in all aspects of our coverage was a great accomplishment, but being 100% accurate, effectively using our great sources and social media without putting a single piece of erroneous information on our air, is what we are most proud of as a newsroom,” said News Director Lee Rosenthal at the time. Watch: 
 
 About 15 minutes later the station corrected its mistake, but claimed an NTSB official had confirmed the names. 
 
 Earlier in the newscast we gave some names of pilots involved in the Asiana Airlines crash. These names were not accurate despite an NTSB official in Washington confirming them late this morning. We apologize for this error. 
 
 > More: Further apology from KTVU president & GM 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.” 
 
 >More: The NTSB has released a statement saying a summer intern “acted outside the scope of his authority” and mistakenly confirmed the fake names for KTVU Friday morning: 
 
 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. 
 
 > More: An apology on the 6pm news: “We made several mistakes. First of all, we never read the names out loud, phonetically sounding them out.” 
 
 > More: The AAJA responds: “Those names were not only wrong, but so grossly offensive that it’s hard for us at the Asian American Journalists Association to fathom how those names made it on the broadcast.”
– There's not fact checking, and then there's ... not even using your brain. A newscast on Bay Area Fox affiliate KTVU apparently fell for a (racist and offensive) joke, incorrectly reporting that the pilots of the plane that crashed at San Francisco airport were named "Sum Ting Wong," "Ho Lee Fuk," "Bang Ding Ow," and "Wi Tu Lo," SF Weekly reports. The network later apologized, but said an NTSB official in Washington had "confirmed" them. It wasn't exactly an official. Per the NTSB: "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 kicker, as Mediabistro notes, is that KTVU had just been boasting about its "100% accurate" coverage of the disaster earlier this week.