The plane in question was an Arab Emirates registered 747SP which had delivered the Elvis firefighting helicopters.
As part of the ongoing runway works at CB, the runway lights at the northern end of R17/35 were temporary installations that apparently weren't tethered as well as they were supposed to be.
R12/30 was still available for smallish aircraft, and I believe some planes took the option of landing on 35, or 17 with a displaced threshold until enough lights were back in operation for the whole of 17 to be available again.