Asiana drops fake pilot name lawsuit

Asiana Airlines is dropping its plans to sue a San Francisco television station that misidentified the pilots of its plane that crashed earlier this month, the company said on Wednesday.

Asiana had said earlier this week that it would sue San Francisco TV station KTVU for defamation after the station broadcast a report that identified its pilots with names the company deemed racist and offensive.

The station falsely identified the pilots of the Boeing 777 that crashed two weeks ago as “Captain Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk” and “Bang Ding Ow.”

{mosads}KTVU issued an on-air apology the same day the report with the fake names aired, and the station blamed the error on faulty confirmation from federal investigators who are reviewing the Asiana accident.

The investigative agency, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), placed blame for the mistaken confirmation on a summer intern that the agency said has since been fired.

The NTSB said the San Francisco television station was the original source for the offensive names. The agency has said that it was simply confirming information that was presented to it, although that confirmation ended up being erroneous.

The crash of Asiana’s Flight 214 on July 6 resulted in the deaths of three passengers and more than 180 other injuries.