A Taiwan Defense Ministry investigation found that several missteps and procedural violations led to the navy's fatal missile launch Friday, determining the incident wasn't intended to provoke China.
Mistakes aboard the Jin-Jiang class patrol craft included the use of "war mode" on a weapons control panel rather than a training setting, according to the ministry's report, which was submitted Monday to a parliamentary committee. The weapons operator was left unsupervised before firing the anti-ship missile, which struck a Taiwanese fishing boat and killed one person.
"The incident was caused by a series of discipline violations and mistakes," said the report, the findings of which were first reported by Bloomberg News on Monday. "It wasn't just one individual operating mistake."