Asiana Airlines Planning to Sue KTVU Over Fake Pilot Names, Says it Damaged Reputation

Reason 24/7

KTVU, the Fox affiliate in San Francisco, reported four obviously fake names as the actual names of the pilots of the Asiana Airlines flight that crash landed at San Francisco airport last weekend. The TV station said someone at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed the names. The NTSB initially denied the claim but eventually admitted to its role, blaming an intern.

Now, Asiana Airlines is suing KTVU, claiming the mistake (the one made by the TV station, not whatever caused the deadly crash) has tarnished the airline's reputation.

From CBS News:

Asiana Airlines announced Monday that it was going to sue a San Francisco TV station that it said damaged the airline's reputation by using bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on a plane that crashed earlier this month in San Francisco.

An anchor for KTVU-TV read the names on the air Friday and then apologized after a break. The report was accompanied by a graphic with the phony names listed alongside a photo of the burned-out plane that had crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, killing three and injuring dozens.

The fullscreen, in case you somehow missed it:

KTVU

Follow these stories and more at Reason 24/7 and don't forget you can e-mail stories to us at [e-mail] and tweet us at @reason247.

Comments

[Night Elf Mohawk]

What's the marginal damage compared to the crash, I wonder? Also, the longer people talk about the crash, the worse for them. Seems like a really bad idea.

[Aresen]

Let me get this straight:

Your flight crew crashes a quarter-billion dollar airplane, kills three people and injures dozens more and what really damages your reputation is someone making a tasteless joke?

[playa manhattan]

You misspelled "tasteful"

[Alice Bowie]

The three people killed were actually not killed by the plane crash. They were survivors that got ran over by the firetruck.

[tarran]

Alice,

You are such a fucking moron that it makes my brain hurt.

*One* might have been run over by a truck.

At least two of the dead were ejected from the aircraft as it crashed at 100MPH, and people inside the cabin suffered injuries like broken necks.

I know this goes against your nature, but could you please look at facts rather than spouting your prejudices as if they were facts?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

tarran, you might as well tell the tides to stop...

[Sevo]

Tarran,
Nothing of this says that Alice is other than a lying pile of shit, but:
AFAIK, one death was caused by the crash or the ejection. The second victim was run over by a firetruck; there is question regarding whether that caused the death.
The third died in the hospital days later, so, no, a fire truck was not involved.
Alice, are you reading?

[MasterDarque]

I know I am supposed to be outraged but names they used and not the crash itself is funny

[Mr. Soul]

Waitress, one pee-pee coke for MasterDarque.

[tarran]

Earlier we were discussing how this could happen, and I think this video backs up what I suspect occured, the pilot and instructor, both new at their jobs, were to overwhelmed to monitor air-speed frequently enough to detect that the auto-throttle wasn't doing its job, and that they only became aware of the problem when the airspeed dropped to the point that they could no longer stay on the glide slope.

This is why I have very mixed feelings about autothrottle: if properly engaged it's a godsend, but when a pilot fails to engage it but thinks they have, it can lead to terrible disasters.

[JW]

Fuuuuuuck. Just looking at that simulation of the plane wheeling around makes my sphincter contract.

I left SF about an hour before the plane crashed. When I got to my connection in Chicago, I had all these messages waiting from people asking me if I was OK and if I made it out. I didn't even know anything had happened.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

The names are awesome. Sucks about the plane and the victims.

[UnCivilServant]

I don't want to laugh, but I can't help it.

Also, how did the station not see that they were so blatantly fake?

[Sevo]

"Also, how did the station not see that they were so blatantly fake?"

I don't watch TV news, since I have strong suspicions that the news readers are not hired for their intelligence.

[CE]

The names were "confirmed by a summer intern" -- apparently he read them on Twitter or something. So much for landing that TV job when he graduates.

[albo]

"I approve these names."

--Heywood Jablome

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"But not me"

- Pat McGroin

[EDG reppin' LBC]

"I'm indifferent."

--Hugh Jass

But seriously, the names are ridiculously fake. When read in succession, they relay the entire narrative of the crash. It really is comedy gold.

[Loki]

When read in succession, they relay the entire narrative of the crash. It really is comedy gold.

This. It's not the blatantly racist stereotyping that makes the names funny.

[Alice Bowie]

Fox should be sued for that. And perhaps the proceeds can go to those three women that died and not the offended airline that had Captain Sum Ting Wong (with only 40 hrs of experience) flying a Boeing 777.

[tarran]

Alice, stop lying. Stop spreading inflammatory lies. Your prejudices aren't reality.

Pilot Lee Kang-kook had flown a Boeing 777 nine previous times to other airports, but was flying the jet to SFO for the first time, Asiana Airlines spokeswoman Lee Hyo-min said.

"He is a veteran pilot with almost 10,000 hours on other aircrafts like the 747," she said. "He was in the process of getting a license for the new 777."

Lee flew with an experienced Boeing 777 pilot mentor, in accordance with world standard, the spokeswoman said.

[Alice Bowie]

I got it from this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....59084.html

[Aresen]

Getting your current events from Hufflepuffle Post is like getting your history from The History Channel.

[Loki]

Ancient Aliens at the first Thanksgiving!

[Careless]

Hey, there was a point (1999) where the History Channel was the History of WWII channel, and was decent with its facts

[tarran]

And it contradicts what you are claiming.

"He has a lot of experience and previously flown to San Francisco on different planes including the B747... and he was assisted by another pilot who has more experience with the 777," the spokeswoman said.

Lee, who started his career at Asiana as an intern in 1994, has 9,793 hours of flying experience, but only 43 hours with the Boeing 777 jet

10,000 hours, on heavy jets like the Boeing 747 means the guy is a very experienced pilot.

As I said, you should start actually reading and paying attention to what people are saying instead of overwriting their words with your prejudices if you want people to start taking you seriously.

[Loki]

Apparently some people, let's call them "morons" believe that the Boeing 777 is completely different from every other large passenger jet, and therefore experience in those other jets doesn't matter when it comes to flying the 777. So no one without a lot of flight experience specifically in the 777 should ever be allowed to fly one.

Don't ask how pilots are supposed to gain the experience if they're not allowed to fly the planes. That makes these people, the morons, heads hurt. And you wouldn't want them to get migraines would you? They'd have to go the emergency room for that. Because they're morons.

[Aresen]

Not sure. In WWII, there were attempts by Allied Pilot POWs to steal German Aircraft to fly home.

Due to unfamiliarity with the aircraft, no such attempts were successful.

However, given that designs are now standardized and that the Boeing family of aircraft would share cockpit layout features, I would think that the pilots' experience would largely carry over. (I mean, it's not as if they were trying to fly it into a NYC skyscraper or something. /tasteless)

[Sevo]

Aresen| 7.15.13 @ 1:25PM |#
..."Due to unfamiliarity with the aircraft, no such attempts were successful."...

Maybe true of attempts to steal them, but *every* axis fighter was flown by allied pilots to establish counter techniques.
Some were weird (Japan's Army had push-to-fly throttles while the Navy had the opposite), but accomplished pilots didn't have any real problems.

[CE]

I would assume there are flight simulators and training aircraft. Shouldn't you at least get a discount on your ticket and advance warning that the pilot is on a training flight?

[Aresen]

"Our Pilot on this flight will be Mohammed Atta. He tends to run the aircraft into things. Passengers are advised to ensure their wills are up to date."

[tarran]

The pilot had completed the simulator phase of his training, which is extensive.

At some point you have to start flying the plane for real.

He was doing a visual approach with no ILS. My guess is he just wasn't monitoring air speed closely because he was juggling a lot of stuff.

The person at the controls is supposed to regularly scan his altitude, attitude, air speed, heading and vertical speed indicators.

The person who isn't at the controls should be monitoring the instruments as well.

My guess is that when all is said and done they will find that the pilot failed to properly engage the autothrottle and to monitor his airspeed, and that the instructor failed to properly monitor the instruments. Since the pilot was a trainee, the instructor will face the harshest sanctions.

To see all the stuff they are juggling, here is a video of a 777 landinf at Narita. Note how they are using ILS even though it is very clear. The ILS was disabled at SFO for an upgrade.

[Loki]

Oh, well, the Huffington Post says it so it must true. Paragons of virtue and all that is good an true that they are. I guess he/she/it just totally fact PWND you, tarran. /sarc

[John-David]

Christ, you guys are more Aspie than me if you can't tell that "Alice Bowie" is having a good righteous troll of y'all. And I'm pretty goddamned Aspie.

[Flyboy]

...Asiana Airlines spokeswoman Lee Hyo-min said.

Sounds like she needs to get laid.

[Lord Humungus]

also Racist!

Joke:

Englishman: How high is a Chinese mountain?

Chinese: Yes.

[widget]

"...blaming an intern."

The regular NTSB staff were so busy handling all the other airplane crashes from last week they had to hand this duty off to an intern.

[Alice Bowie]

That's so lame. Nobody at the NTSB gave FOX NEWS names like :

Sum Ting Wong
Wi Tu Lo
Ho Lee Fuk
Bang Ding Ow

This is on some "Howard Stern" shit.

[Fatty Bolger]

Do you even pay attention? The NTSB confirmed the names.

[Jordan]

*Facepalm* The NTSB has already admitted it and apologized.

[Citizen Nothing]

Contrails!

[Scarecrow Repair]

Time to rag on A less Beau wee.

[Sevo]

No need. A less is doing quite well without any help at all.
OK, folks, let's hear it! Put 'em together for A less!

[Acosmist]

Fox News? Thought this was an affiliate, so not Fox News at all.

[Sevo]

Hey! No heckling the talent!

[JW]

siana Airlines announced Monday that it was going to sue a San Francisco TV station that it said damaged the airline's reputation by using bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on a plane that crashed earlier this month in San Francisco.

Oh Noyu Didn!

Gosh, you'd think that the actual PLANE CRASHING due to pilot error would have a more deleterious affect on their reputation.

[The Late P Brooks]

I'm sure the news director and on screen personalities have all resigned and committed ritual suicide by now, so this case is moot.

[Loki]

The NTSB initially denied the claim but eventually admitted to its role, blaming an intern.

Always blame the intern. Preferably one that no longer works there.

[Rrabbit]

Now I believe that Asiana Airlines are run by the management team of Phuc Yu, Dum Gal, and Su Mi.

[Rasilio]

Are they represented by the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe?

[Sevo]

Racist!

[HazelMeade]

LOL. I thought that report was a fake, Onion type, broadcast.

Well, that intern's career at the NTSB is over.

[Adamsmith1776]

YEs--but now he gets to sue the NTSB for not following fair labor standards act or some other employee protection crap.

[CE]

Isn't anyone concerned that the plane burst into flames because the tail hit? Why is the fuselage flammable? And this was after a trans-Pacific flight, without much fuel left.

[tarran]

The fire was caused by lubricating oil pouring from a ruptured tank onto a hot surface. Also, the plane will land with a significant fuel reserve, particularly if it completed an ocean-crossing where nothing went wrong (they carry a bigger reserve in case they run into headwinds etc).

[Aresen]

They have to have sufficient reserve to make an alternate airport.

[Aresen]

Anything will burn if you put enough jet fuel on it.

[Sevo]

CE| 7.15.13 @ 1:57PM |#
"Isn't anyone concerned that the plane burst into flames because the tail hit?"

No really. The "tail hit" was sorta the cause of the "body hit", the "engine hit", the....
You get the point.

[XM]

According to South Korean media, the pilots and Lee Hyo Min are heroes for doing their jobs. One of their news reporter were tremendously relieved that all of the confirmed fatalities were Chinese, not Korean.