Asiana says it will sue a San Francisco TV station for damaging its reputation with a false, racially insensitive report released after its July 6 plane crash.
A prank believed to be the product of a National Transportation Safety Board intern led to an offensively wrong list of pilot names being read on the air.
An anchor for KTVU-TV read the names on the air Friday in a report about the San Francisco plane crash, then quickly apologized after a break.
Worse yet, the report was accompanied by a graphic with the names alongside a photo of the burned-out plane that crashed and claimed three lives.
Video of the report spread quickly went viral after the broadcast.
The National Transportation Safety Board has also apologized, saying a summer intern erroneously “confirmed” the names of the Asiana flight crew.
That wasn’t satisfactory for Asiana, which has decided to sue KTVU to “strongly respond to its racially discriminatory report” that disparaged Asians.
Spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said the airline will file suit in U.S. courts.
She said the bogus report seriously damaged Asiana’s reputation, and that the company may launch a similar lawsuit against the NTSB as well.
Neither the TV station nor the NTSB have commented on where the names originated, though both have apologized profusely for what transpired.
The four actual pilots, who underwent questioning by a U.S. and South Korean joint investigation team while in the U.S., returned to South Korea Saturday.
South Korean officials plan to conduct separate interviews with them, South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Sunday.