It was reported on Fox and Friends this morning that the pilot had only 43 hours flying time on the particular airplane and had never flown into San Francisco with the air plane. The question is why did the chief pilot allow him to fly it.
This was part of the standard training process that has served all the airlines that use the 777 well for the last eighteen years. The pilot had only 43 hours of flight time on the 777 and was obviously trying to get more. One other thing, of the five or ten hours of flying credit that he (or she) would have gotten for this flight only five or ten minutes is part of the landing process and the most critical part of that only accounts for about thirty seconds.
From what I have read, the low-time pilot (in a 777, but had lots of other expeirience) WAS the captain.
This approach should have been a piece of cake. But he made a mistake, and i believe due to cultural issues the first officer didn’t correct him until it was too late.