Asiana Airlines has decided not to sue an Oakland TV station for reporting fake Asiana pilot names which were racially offensive.
KTVU-TV had accidentally reported false named of four Asiana pilots, which were joke names like Sum Ting Wong. The station quickly retracted the report and issued an apology for the mistake.
Asiana claimed that they were going to sue the TV station for the incident as executives claimed the mistake hurt the carrier's reputation.
"Asiana Airlines had intended to pursue legal action for a regrettable report on July 12 made by local San Francisco Bay Area broadcasting station KTVU," the airline says in statement according to USA Today. "The report referred to the names of the pilots by using racially charged epithets. It profoundly disparaged Asiana, its employees, and all Asians. Asiana deplores the hateful words of the broadcast."
However the airline snow says that it will forget about the lawsuit and will just move on and focus on supporting the passengers and families who were involved in the Asiana Flight 214 crash at San Francisco airport. Three people were killed as a result of that crash that about 180 others were injured.
Asiana released a statement explaining the decision to not continue the lawsuit, saying it "has decided to not pursue legal action as a result of a public apology by KTVU for the report in question and (the airline's) determination to keep all of its resources dedicated to caring for the passengers and family members of Asiana flight 214 and supporting the investigation into the cause of the accident."
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also took some heart for the incident as the TV station said the NTSB had confirmed the fake names. The NTSB would up firing an intern over the issue. The NTSB has a policy to not release the identity of people involved in its incidents. It is believed that the intern passed and confirmed the false names. The NTSB apologized for the incident.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
