You're referring to the Transasia in Taiwan.

GP probably was about the Asiana 214 into SFO, RW 28 L, where the ILS was inoperative, so it was a bog standard visual approach into a nice long runway in beautiful weather in a flawless Boeing 777 that the crew botched. (First fatal crash of a 777 - great plane!)

However, the 777 supports the point made way above: the planes and systems are so good these days that most accidents are freak accidents.

Let's look at 777 hull losses:

* 2008, BA 38 into LHR: weird problem with frozen fuel filter (no fatalities)

* 2011, EgyptAir 667 on the ground in Cairo: fire (no fatalities)

* 2013, Asiana 214 into SFO: inop ILS, suboptimal crew resource management (a few fatalities, one run over by fire truck)

* 2014, MH 370: freak freak freak freaky

* 2014, MH 17: shot down over Ukraine

* 2015, BA 2276 in Las Vegas: uncontained engine failure (no fatalities)

* 2016, Emirates 521 in Dubai: crash on botched go-around (one fatality, fire fighter)

So, I'd say there were some crew problems, some design problems (hopefully fixed), and many really freaky confluences of unfortunate circumstances...

Yeah originally the news cycle had some spin on it - I clearly remember some lines about "Wow check out the heroic actions by the pilot to avoid crashing into any buildings!" and later when the cockpit recorder came out, uhhh, not so heroic. Human, an error...preventable? Up for debate but I like to think a lot of US regulated pilots would be able to handle it appropriately.