Asiana crash crew 'unfamiliar with auto-throttle'

[WASHINGTON] The crew members of an Asiana Airlines flight that crashed their Boeing 777 against the sea wall at San Francisco International Airport last July had missed multiple cues that they had done something wrong in the seconds before the crash, according to investigators.

But their training was deficient, and they shared widespread confusion about how to use a crucial system, the auto-throttle, according to comments at a meeting held by the National Transportation Safety Board the Tuesday to establish the cause of the crash.

"The flight crew over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand," said Christopher Hart, the acting chairman of the board. Crew members unknowingly disabled the auto-throttle, which they thought would keep them from flying too slowly, because they gave multiple instructions to the autopilot during the approach and failed to follow airline procedures in the sequence of instructions and in saying aloud what they were doing.