777 approach speed.
I read a lot of posts about how dangerous it is to fly the visual 28L into SFO. I am thus surprised that 99.9% of the time, things go well.
1800-1900 ft recommended altitude on a 5 mile final calls for a 4 degree descent. Meaning the VSI would show -1000 instead of -800 for example for a classic 3 degree slope at 160 ground speed.
Now apparently SFO also calls for 180kt till 5 DME, and not the classic 180 to 10 160 to 4 at most international airports. More difficult to achieve, but not impossible, especially when you have had 10 hours plus preflight to brief that possibility. Plus, you are getting paid big bucks for this, the least passengers expect is someone in front who knows how to fly the damn thing better than THEY can. Because honestly, everyone can push buttons...
Now I suppose they were already flying flap 5 @180 when descending. Vref was 137@ flap 30, leaving them about 90 seconds (1900 to 500AGL for stabilized approach criteria in VMC conditions) to loose 40 knots ideally, 20kt at minimum to meet the criteria. More than feasible. In fact NTSB report shows they were at 134 kts at 500 feet. BUT, obviously, instead of anticipating and letting the engines spool up, they remained at idle until about 150-200 feet. WHY??? That is the question we should be asking ourselves.