Has the NTSB already published what is likely to have caused the crash?

 

Nope. In general it takes anywhere from several months to several years before a major accident investigation like this is completed.

General airline sop on the 777 is to leave the autothrottle on for landing due to the unique handling of the FBW and trimming. That doesn't mean you cannot disengage when hand flying the approach and landing.

 

If they we're flying a non precision approach in VMC I see no issue with disconnecting all the automatics, a simple case of click, click and the aircrafts yours.

 

 

I think precision approaches need to be hand flown too and thus throttles in manual. Not all the time, but to practice for if the AP fails or something requires.....

 

I could be wrong.....