Asiana to sue U.S. TV station over pilot slurs

Asiana Airlines said Monday that it had decided to file a lawsuit against a U.S. television station for insulting the pilots of its jetliner that crash-landed at San Francisco Airport on July 6.

“We decided to take legal action against KTVU in the United States that aired a report distorting and belittling the names of Asiana pilots,” the nation’s air carrier said in a statement.

“We have already selected a local law firm for the lawsuit and plan to submit a petition to a U.S. court,” it added.

On Friday, Fox network affiliate KTVU news Channel 2 in Oakland identified the pilots of the doomed Asiana Boeing 777 as “Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” and “Bang Ding Ow.”

KTVU cited the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the chief investigator of the air traffic accident, as its source, but realized the mistake and apologized.

The NTSB later apologized for the “inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed” as those of the Asiana pilots ― and blamed the mistake on an intern.

But Asiana said the KTVU’s broadcast undermined and seriously damaged the dignity of the company, adding that it had made the decision to strongly counter the racially discriminatory report that belittled Asians.

Also on Friday, the Asian American Journalists Association in the U.S. said words cannot adequately express its outrage over KTVU’s on-air blunder that made a mockery of the Asiana Airlines tragedy. The association said the fake and offensive names caricatured Asian names.

“We’re mostly saddened that a tragedy that took the lives of three people and injured scores of other passengers could be taken as an opportunity for an apparent joke,” the association said in a statement posted on its Website.

Three people died when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed while landing at the airport and more than 180 were injured.

However, Asiana, the nation’s second-largest flag carrier, said it would not take any legal action against the NTSB, saying that “the actual damage occurred after KTVU aired fake offensive names of the pilots.”

Meanwhile, the Korean government Monday urged the country’s flag carriers to undertake a special inspection of their equipment, maintenance and operation systems to ensure the safety of their flights in the wake of the deadly Asiana Airlines crash.

In a special meeting with officials from the country’s eight flag carriers, Vice Transport Minister Yeo Hyung-koo pushed for airlines to step up their safety measures and provide additional training to pilots and crew.

“I ask all the airlines to reinforce their safety measures through an intensive inspection of all areas, from flight operation, maintenance and their operation manuals to facilities,” the vice minister said, according to the ministry.

In a message delivered by Yeo, Transportation Minister Suh Seoung-hwan also called on the airlines to give special training to their pilots and other crew members of flights to and from airports known to be difficult to land, due to known obstacles or frequent system failures, the ministry said in a press release.

Government officials also said an on-site investigation into the crash-landing of the flight has been wrapped up, though a clear answer to the exact cause of the accident will take more time.

The debris, including the fuselage of the crashed jet, have been removed from the runway at the airport, officials said.

Still, the entire investigation may take more than a year to be completed, a ministry official told reporters. The remaining phase of the investigation will largely focus on analyzing the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the crashed jet, which may take well over a year. 

By Choi In-jeong and news reports 
(injeongchoi@heraldcorp.com)