An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to reroute after a red-faced pilot admitted he was “not qualified” to land.
Flight 3491, operated by Alaska’s partner SkyWest, departed San Francisco on August 8 for Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
But before he could descend, the pilot announced that he… must divert to Salt Lake City, Utah, “because I do not have the proper qualifications,” according to passengers on the plane.
Keeping track of data Flight aware shows the plane heading toward Jackson Hole, then circling several times before flying toward Salt Lake City, 292 miles (475 kilometers) away.
Jackson Hole Airport has a reputation for being difficult to land at due to its mountainous location, short runway and wind shear, all of which place additional demands on 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 are only cleared to land in unrestricted ceiling and visibility conditions, also known as CAVU.
After this embarrassing confession, the pilot is said to have performed a ‘walk of shame’ to retrieve his bag from the back of the plane. Cowboy State Daily defeated.
One passenger wrote about the bizarre experience on Reddit, stating that he and other passengers had to wait on the tarmac while a new pilot was found.
“All in all, we landed about 3 hours later than planned, due to an unqualified pilot?” the passenger speculated.
‘Is flying to Jackson a bit like a level 10 boss?’
SkyWest told Cowboy State Daily that the detour was the result of an administrative misunderstanding.
‘[Flight 3491] “A short-haul plane landed in Salt Lake City to correct a crew record error,” 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 difficult airport to land at, located at an elevation of over 6,451 feet in the Teton Range
The pilot departed San Francisco Airport for Wyoming without incident, but was unable to land on schedule
‘All pilots involved were qualified to fly and land the aircraft; the flight was diverted from Jackson Hole due to an internal clerical error and out of an abundance of caution.’
Jackson Hole Airport is located at an elevation of over 6,500 feet (1,960 meters) in the Teton Mountains.
The challenging approach brings additional requirements including a Special Pilot in Command qualification and a SAAT Level 4 rating which requires a more experienced co-pilot.
Others suspected that the poor weather conditions could have meant that the pilot would normally have been able to land, but that he lacked the relevant experience to do so in less than ideal conditions.
FlightAware data shows that storm fronts were in the Jackson Hole area at the plane’s scheduled landing time.
Flight 3491 was operated on August 8 by Alaska’s partner SkyWest
But the passenger who shared his experience claimed that this was not communicated at the time.
“As far as I can remember, all we were told was, ‘The pilot is qualified to land at this airport’ – no information was provided about safety or the weather,” the customer said.
However, the passenger did admit that the eventual landing, several hours later, was “the bumpiest descent landing I’ve ever experienced.”