TV station apologizes for error on names
A San Francisco Bay Area TV station has apologized after reporting bogus names of the four pilots aboard Asiana Airlines Flight 214 that were a play on Asian names. KTVU-TV co-anchor Tori Campbell read the racially offensive names on the air Friday. The report was accompanied by a graphic with the phony names listed alongside a photo of the burned out plane. After a break, Campbell apologized for the error. She said a National Transportation Safety Board official had confirmed the names to the station. The NTSB also apologized and said a summer intern “acted outside the scope of his authority” when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew. Neither the station nor the NTSB commented on where the names originated.
Associated Press
Before Asiana Flight 214 crash-landed in San Francisco, the last time the Korean airline’s flight attendants made news was over an effort by their union earlier this year to get the dress code updated so female attendants could wear trousers.
Now, with half of the 12-person cabin crew having suffered injuries in the accident and the remaining attendants receiving praise for displaying heroism during the emergency evacuation, the focus has shifted from their uniform looks to their heroic actions.
In the July 6 crash, three members of the crew were ejected from the plane’s sheared off tail section while still strapped in their seats. Those who were able, meanwhile, oversaw the emergency evacuation of nearly 300 passengers — using knives to slash seatbelts, slinging axes to free two colleagues trapped by malfunctioning slides, fighting flames and bringing out frightened children.
“I wasn’t really thinking, but my body started carrying out the steps needed for an evacuation,” head attendant Lee Yoon-hye, 40, said during a news conference before federal safety investigators instructed the airlines not to let the crew discuss the accident. “I was only thinking about rescuing the next passenger.”
Such conduct has given a measure of pride to members of a profession who often are recognized only for their appearance and customer service skills.
“In the face of tremendous adversity and obstacles, they did their job and evacuated an entire wide-bodied aircraft in a very short period of time,” said Veda Shook, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants and an Alaska Airlines flight attendant.
“It’s such a shining reflection, not just of the crew, but of the importance of flight attendants in their roles as first responders,” Shook said.
Along with training in first aid and firefighting, flight attendants every year are required to practice the moves needed to get passengers off a plane in 90 seconds or less, Shook said. They go through timed trials, practicing skills that include shouting over pandemonium and engine noise, communicating with people frozen in fear and opening jammed doors and windows, she said. The goal is to make performing these tasks automatic.
“We have the muscle memory,” Shook said.
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It’s a significant departure from the days when flight attendants were always women and known as stewardesses or air hostesses. In that era decades ago, members of the cabin crew weren’t expected to play much of a role in emergencies.
Laura Brentlinger, who spent 31 years as a United Airlines flight attendant, recalled having no idea how much danger everyone was in during one of her first emergency landings in 1972. She didn’t realize the severity of the situation until it was over and she saw the pilot’s face.
“In those days, it was like pat you on the head, just go back and keep the people nice and smile. That’s how far we’ve come, thank the Lord,” Brentlinger said. “We were just little Barbie dolls back there.”
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The role of flight attendants in the U.S. expanded significantly in 1989 after Air Ontario Flight 1363 crashed after taking off in Canada. An investigation revealed that a flight attendant had seen ice on a wing but did not speak up, assuming the pilots knew and would not welcome the information from her.
Since then, FAA rules have required that cabin crew members be incorporated into the communications system known as “crew resource management” that empowers all airline personnel to voice concerns to the cockpit even if it means challenging senior pilots.
The philosophy also authorizes flight attendants to order emergency evacuations. Hearing that the pilots of Asiana Flight 214 told the flight attendants to delay an evacuation for 90 seconds after the crash landing in San Francisco, giving the order only after a flight attendant spotted flames outside, made Brentlinger wonder whether Asiana Airline’s attendants have the same authority.
“I’m sure they have a very different hierarchy and can’t do anything without the pilot’s permission,” she said. “There is no doubt in my mind I would have evacuated that aircraft immediately.”
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