Asiana Airlines, embroiled in an ongoing investigation regarding one of its 777 airplanes which crash landed on July 6 resulting in three Chinese teenagers being killed, has said it planned to sue the U.S. television station KTVU for reporting racially offensive fake names for their pilots, Reuters reported. In addition to the three dead teenagers, over 180 were injured as a result of the crash.
"The KTVU report that not only disparaged Asians in general through the use of racially charged epithets, but also severely damaged the reputation of Asiana Airlines," the lawsuit stipulated.
The pilot in charge of landing the plane was in training on the 777 aircraft, while the co-pilot sitting next to him was on his first flight as an instructor, news reports said. The two had not flown together but were experienced pilots, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
"We will bolster our training program...when a pilot converts to a jet from a different manufacturer," Asiana said in a presentation to the government, which had been shown to reporters.
Asiana pilots are required to fly 10 flight plus a total of 60 hours on a 777 to complete its training program. New measures will include the enhancement of training for visual approach and automated flight and conducting flight inspection on airports, which are 'vulnerable to safety.'
The pilots aboard the Boeing 777 made a visual approach to San Francisco airport, and relied on automatic equipment to maintain airspeed, Reuters reported. Asiana said it will also seek to improve communications skills among crew members, and introduce a system to manage 'fatigue risk,' Reuters also reported.
