Bay Area TV station KTVU, whose initial video footage of the Boeing 777 crash that left three dead and many wounded last Sunday was carried by major networks, is in hot water for falsely reporting the names of the Asiana Airlines pilots.
On Friday, the station reported the names as being "Captain Sum Ting Wong," "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk" and "Bang Ding Ow."
The news outlet has subsequently apologized for the report but still maintained that those names were confirmed by "an NTSB official in the agency’s Washington, D.C. office," a statement on the station's website read (the statement no longer appears on the site).
An NTSB public affairs officer confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that it had not released the names of the pilots. KTVU declined to comment on the incident when contacted by THR.
“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 and general manager, in a statement.
“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," Raponi added.
