The National Transportation Safety Board announced in a Wednesday meeting that after examination of all the factors, pilot confusion was the key reason behind Asiana Airlines Flight 214's crash.
The 2013 crash, where the passenger plane slammed into a seawall at San Francisco International Airport while landing, was due to the pilots' "mismanagement," the Los Angeles Times reports. Three people were killed and more than 180 suffered injuries.
The federal agency said that the pilots seemed unsure of how to properly operate some of the more complicated controls on the Boeing 777 and perhaps relied too much on the computerized flight system. The pilots were confused on how to properly operate the auto throttle, which controls airspeed set by the pilots.
According to ABC News, the airlines previously claimed that some of the blame is on Boeing as the auto throttle device did not warn the pilots it wasn't flying at their set speed as they tried to land, resulting in them coming in much too low.
But, Boeing has said that there indeed was a warning and the problem was at the feet of the pilots who, Asiana later admitted, apparently set the plane to the incorrect auto-pilot mode.
The airliner, since the accident, has promised to improve training and safety measures as many wondered whether the pilots were properly qualified to be flying. The South Korean government is also reportedly looking into implementing harsher penalties and more training in the wake of the crash.