An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to divert after a red-faced pilot admitted he was “not qualified” to land.
Flight 3491, operated by Alaska partner SkyWest, took off from San Francisco bound for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Aug. 8.
But before he could descend, the pilot announced that… had to divert to Salt Lake City, Utah, “because I did not have the proper qualifications,” according to passengers on the plane.
Tracking data of Conscious of the flight It shows the plane heading toward Jackson Hole, before making a few turns and taking off toward Salt Lake City, 290 miles away.
Jackson Hole Airport is a notoriously tricky airport to land at due to its mountainous elevation, short runway, and wind shear conditions, meaning it has additional requirements for pilots.
An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to divert from Jackson Hole Airport to Salt Lake City after a red-faced pilot admitted he was “not qualified” to land.
Some pilots may only be authorized to land in conditions of unlimited ceiling and visibility, known as CAVU.
Following the embarrassing admission, the pilot reportedly did a “walk of shame” as he got off the plane to retrieve his bag from the back of the aircraft. State of the Cowboys Diary information.
One passenger took to Reddit to detail the bizarre experience, claiming he and the other passengers had to wait on the tarmac while a new pilot was found.
“In total we landed about three hours later than planned, due to an unqualified pilot?” the passenger speculated.
‘Is flying to Jackson like facing a level 10 final boss?’
SkyWest told Cowboy State Daily that the detour was due to a paperwork mix-up.
“(Flight 3491) landed briefly in Salt Lake City to correct a paperwork error involving the flight crew,” a spokesman said.
‘The flight continued to Jackson Hole after a delay while a new pilot was hired to operate the flight.
Ackson Hole Airport is a notoriously tricky airport to land at, located at an elevation of over 6,451 feet within the Teton Mountain Range.
The pilot took off safely from San Francisco Airport bound for Wyoming, but was unable to land as scheduled.
‘All pilots involved were qualified to fly and land the aircraft; the flight was diverted from Jackson Hole due to an internal administrative error and out of an abundance of caution.’
Jackson Hole Airport is located at an elevation of over 6,451 feet within the Teton Mountain Range.
Its challenging approach means it has additional requirements including a Special Pilot in Command qualification and a SAAT level four qualification which requires a more experienced co-pilot.
Others speculated that the poor weather conditions could mean that while the pilot would normally have been able to land, he did not have the experience to do so in less than ideal conditions.
FlightAware data shows storm fronts in the area near Jackson Hole at the flight’s scheduled landing time.
Flight 3491 was operating under Alaska partner SkyWest on August 8.
But the passenger who shared his experience said this was not communicated to him at the time.
“As I recall, ALL we were told was ‘the pilot meets the qualifications to land at this airport’; nothing was announced about safety or weather,” the customer said.
However, the passenger acknowledged that the final landing several hours later was “the roughest landing on descent I have ever experienced.”
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