By Gilbert Falso :: 6:22 PM
Update: Asiana Airlines will sue KTVU over the incorrect pilot names. Read more…
In a “somebody in the production room is getting fired” fiasco, San Francisco television station KTVU produced graphics incorrectly identifying the names of the pilots at the helm of the Asiana Airlines jetliner that crashed last weekend.
Not only were the graphics aired on live television, but a newscaster read the names as they were shown on the screen, without noticing that they could not possibly be correct.
The video, below, shows the newscaster saying these four incorrect names: Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, and Bang Ding Ow.
Sophomoric humor aside, the station has apologized for the mistake, claiming that they had received erroneous information from the National Transportation Safety Board. However, a spokesperson for the NTSB has said that his agency did not provide any pilot names to any news agency yet.
A video of the unfortunate news broadcast is below.
By Paul Thomson :: 4:46 PM
In addition to a fire on board a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft at London’s Heathrow airport earlier today, a second issue has also been reported with another UK-based aircraft.
British tour operator Thomson Airways confirmed to the Associated Press that one of its Dreamliner planes was en route from England to the United States and was forced to turn back after experiencing a technical issue in flight.
The Thomson Airways jet had departed the UK’s Manchester Airport bound for Sanford, Florida. It landed safely back in Manchester, where all 291 passengers disembarked from the plane and Boeing engineers are inspecting the aircraft.
It is not clear of the Thomson plane’s issues were battery related or not. Earlier this year, Dreamliner aircraft were grounded due to issues with heat and fire with their batteries and charging mechanisms. These problems resulted in an emergency landing for one aircraft, and a fire on another.
U.S. aviation regulators cleared the aircraft for flight again in April, after Boeing made some engineering changes to the batteries.
Boeing stock dove nearly 5% today, closing at $101.87 after investors worried about the future of Boeing’s new aircraft model.
By Cristian Onvio :: 1:18 PM
Photos and first hand accounts from victims and bystanders are slowly emerging from the train derailment in Bretigny-sur-Orge, France.
The picture, above, was posted to Twitter with the description, “the rear car is lying on the rail,” and shows passengers exiting the wrecked train.
At least eight people have died in the crash, although officials are still working on the scene, and that number is subject to change at any time.
The train was headed from Paris to Limoges when it jumped the tracks and collided with a station platform this afternoon. Some passengers are still trapped in the derailed cars. The locomotive was operating at full speed at the time of the crash.
Jean-Paul Boulet, spokesperson for SNCF, the French national rail agency, said the train was carrying about 350 passengers when it derailed.
More photos below.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 12:55 PM
Flights in and out of London’s Heathrow airport have been canceled or diverted due to a fire that has occurred on board a 787 Dreamliner aircraft belonging to Ethiopian Airlines.
The airliner was parked at the time the blaze was discovered, and no passengers were on the aircraft. The aircraft was close to terminal buildings, but the fire was contained within the plane. The incident occurred at 4:30 PM local time.
“The aircraft was parked on a remote parking stand,” confirmed officials at Heathrow. “There were no passengers on board and there are no reported injuries at this time.”
Fifty of the Dreamliner aircraft, the newest of Boeing’s fleet, were grounded in January for issues with their batteries, and the possibility that these issues could cause smoke and or fire situations.
There is no word yet on when normal operations will return at Heathrow.
By Gilbert Falso :: 7:47 PM
A Tweet from the official Microsoft Corp. account earlier today showed an image of the company’s venerable Clippy character with a message that he was patiently biding his time, planning his next move.
Clippy was a “virtual assistant” animated character that helped users complete tasks, and was introduced in Microsoft’s Office desktop program suite beginning with the 97 version, and was phased out after the 2003 version.
When Twitter user Aaron Levie, who is also the CEO at Box, a cloud storage and sharing program, noted that Microsoft was currently undergoing a large corporate restructuring, he jokingly asked what had happened to Clippy.
Microsoft responded a few hours later with the photo of Clippy above, and the message, “Biding my time. Waiting. Planning.”
Kudos to the Microsoft social media team for having a sense of humor and being quick on the draw to address customer questions.