Wow. NTSB says a "summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority" and confirmed fake pilot names to KTVU.—
Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) July 13, 2013
How could KTVU get something so wrong? The San Francisco TV station was the joke of the Internet today when it fell for a prank and broadcast the “names” of the four pilots on Asiana Air Flight 214. You’d think names like “Captain Sum Ting Wong” and “Wi Tu Lo” would have raised a red flag or two, but the station insisted it had verified the names with the National Transportation Safety Board.
It turns out that might be true. ABC News’ Steven Portnoy is reporting that an NTSB summer intern is responsible for confirming the obviously fake names.
KTVU’s news anchor apologized this evening for the gaffe.
Matthew Keyes noted that a KTVU producer managed to sum up the entire affair earlier today in just one (since-deleted) tweet.