SFO 06/017 SFO RWY 28L ALS OUT OF SERVICE 1706021357-1707211500
If you had seen the NOTAM several hours beforehand that the Approach Lighting System was out of service, even though it was for a runway one character different, would that be in your mind as you line up visually for what looks like the right hand of two parallel lit strips, knowing SFO has two parallel runways (it seems all the lighting for 28L had been turned off for works, not just the approach lights).
I also wonder why they were given this curved visual nighttime approach at a time of low traffic to a runway fully equipped with all the aids. I'll bet when they came back round again that was not done.
And you have to wonder how the Flight Radar 24 traces shown above, which is something put together by a bunch of enthusiast amateurs, can show quite clearly, based on real time information, that they were lined up on the taxiway, and not like the later parallel trace shows for the runway, yet with all the millions of dollars of kit the ATC staff in the tower didn't get to be aware of this.