(Bloomberg) -- A regional jet flying for United Airlines Holdings Inc. crash-landed in a snow-covered field adjacent to a runway in Maine after pilots attempted to touch down without seeing the runway, investigators said Tuesday.

The March 4, 2019, accident on a CommutAir flight with 32 people aboard was one of the most severe on a US carrier in recent years and caused significant damage to the plane. It led to a chaotic evacuation in the snow and three people suffered minor injuries, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a final report. 

A string of errors and miscues caused the crash on the flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Presque Isle, Maine, the NTSB said. An instrument landing system had malfunctioned because equipment was covered by snow and guided the jet to the right of the runway. Even though CommutAir pilots had noticed the malfunction days earlier, some didn’t report it and the system wasn’t repaired. 

But the primary reason the plane touched down in a field between 200 and 300 feet to the right of the runway was that the pilots continued to descend even though they couldn’t make out the runway in the snow, the NTSB concluded. “I don’t know what I’m seein,’” an unspecified pilot said as the plane was less than 100 feet off the ground, according to the report. Neither pilot suggested aborting the landing. 

Champlain Enterprises Inc. owns a majority of CommutAir, according to the airline’s website. United owns 40% of the airline. CommutAir didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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