Originally Posted by
GarageYears
I believe the correct info was: Captain 6709 hrs, F/O 556 hrs, check/training captain 31769 hrs
That is incorrect. The Chinese language sources are clear on the following:
The Captain had 6k hours.
The first First Officer had 32k hours.
The 2nd First Officer had ~500 hours.
The reason for this seemingly odd crew composition was also clearly stated in the Chinese language reporting:
The 32k-hour pilot was one of the most experienced civil aviation pilot in China. He was one of the first Chinese pilots who started flight training as a civilian, rather than military. He started his career just as the Chinese civil aviation was taking off in the early 80s. He was scheduled to retire this year. The reason he had so many hours but yet was not flying as Captain was the airline had retired the 767 on which he was rated as Captain, so he was now being converted to 737.
The young 2nd First Officer was in the third seat. He was assigned to this flight in order to "gain experience." That's all the Chinese language reporting said about this pilot. No further explanation was given how sitting in the third seat could help gain experience.
The Captain was hired as a 737 captain in January, 2018. Nothing remarkable was reported about him.