A San Francisco television station has been forced to make a humiliating apology after an on-air gaffe resulted in a live racist joke about the fatal Asiana plane crash.
During the midday broadcast on Friday, presenter Tori Campbell, announced that her news station, KTVU, had just learned the names of the four pilots who were on board Asiana flight 214 when it crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday.
She then proceeded to read out four fake names from a teleprompter whilst keeping a straight face.
The names poked fun at the crash and have been further criticized for their racist undertones.
It is not yet clear where the names originated but the broadcaster did confirm them with the National Transportation Safety Board before airing them.
The safety board said a summer intern told KTVU the names were correct.
The video of the cringe-worthy mistake has gone viral and drawn heavy criticism on the Internet.
The first name — 'Captain Sum Ting Wong' might have been a giveaway that something was not quite right.
However, with the camera's rolling and in the middle of a live broadcast, Ms. Campbell continued to read without so much as flinching: 'Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, Bang Ding Ow.'
After an ad break, the station was quick to correct the gaffe clarifying that the names were clearly wrong and blaming the National Transportation Safety Board for the incorrect information.
In a statement the NTSB admitted a summer intern had 'erroneously' confirmed the names of the flight crew and was 'acting outside the scope of his authority' in doing so.
'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,' the NTSB said in a statement.
'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,' it added.
