Pranked Fox Affiliate KTVU TV Station Reports “Sum Ting Wong “Ho Lee Fuk,” “Wi Tu Lo” As Asiana Llight 214 Crash Pilots

Are you kidding me that some one actually fell for this prank? And the media criticized blogs for not fact checking and editing … LOL!!!

As reported by Deadspin, San Francisco Bay area Fox affiliate KTVU learned the names of the flight crew of Asiana flight 214, which crashed last Saturday at San Francisco International Airport, killing two, now three. They went on air and stated the four named of the pilots: “Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” and “Bang Ding Ow”. HUH?  What made it even worse was the newscaster’s serious reading of the names that puts it over the top. Good grief. I am sorry, but how new a news station not get what was a 4th grade telephone prank when I was a kid? How could no one have realized that this was an obvious spoof?

How long will it take for some one to call KTVU and ask whether their refrigerator is running?

Video via The Gateway Pundit

KTVU offered an apology after they realized they had been had.

On Friday, July 12, during the KTVU Channel 2 Noon newscast, we misidentified the pilots in the Asiana Airlines crash.

We made several mistakes when we received this information. First, we never read the names out loud, phonetically sounding them out.

Then, during our phone call to the NTSB where the person confirmed the spellings of the names, we never asked that person to give us their position with the agency.

We heard this person verify the information without questioning who they were and then rushed the names on our noon newscast.

The NTSB said late Friday that an intern had confirmed to a California news station the fake names of the pilots aboard the crashed Asiana flight in San Francisco. NTSB Press Release on the incident:

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.