A passenger who was flying a US airline from Portland to Jackson Hole with a layover in San Francisco on Thursday, August 8, claimed that the pilot said he was not qualified to land the plane. The man took to Reddit to share the incident.
According to the post, the aircraft started its descent into Jackson Hole when the pilot announced the same. "Hey, I'm really sorry folks but due to me not having the proper qualification to land in Jackson Hole, we need to divert to Salt Lake City Utah. We'll keep you posted on the next steps," he allegedly said.
The user stated that the plane landed in Salt Lake City and the passengers had to wait on the tarmac for over an hour. The pilot left the aircraft "in a walk of shame" and a new pilot came to fly the plane to Jackson Hole. "This time, we did land in Jackson, but it was perhaps the bumpiest landing in the descent I've ever experienced. Overall we landed about 3 hours later than we were supposed to, because of an unqualified pilot?" he said.
"I should mention, my girlfriend and I are both nervous flyers by default, so all these landings in windy cities kinda s*****," he added.
The man claimed that the incident took place on Alaska Airlines. However, as per a report in the People, the airline confirmed that it was a SkyWest Airlines flight.
SkyWest Airlines issued a statement and said that the pilot was qualified to land the plane but landed to correct some paperwork. "On Thursday, Aug. 8, SkyWest Airlines flight 3491, operating as Alaska Airlines from San Francisco to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, landed for a short time in Salt Lake City to correct a paperwork error related to the flight crew," the airline said in the statement.
They added that the journey continued and "a new pilot was secured to operate the flight." The airline continued, "All pilots involved were qualified to fly and land the aircraft; the flight diverted from Jackson Hole due to an internal administrative error and out of abundance of caution. We apologize to customers for the inconvenience and are conducting an internal review to ensure a similar situation does not occur in the future."
Since being shared, the post has amassed a variety of reactions on Reddit.
"I think it is more likely that the captain did not meet the 'special airport' requirements for JAC but it was only discovered after departure (probably by the dispatcher). There are normally systems in place to track these things but occasionally they do fall through the cracks," said a user.
Another said, "My ex husband of 25 years is a pilot at Alaska. There is something called high minimums. Until a pilot has reached a number of hours the conditions need to be better- I.E. certain visibility, a dryer runway etc. This is probably what happened."
A user added, "That is really strange. You do need 'currency' and special training to land at Jackson Hole, but it's bizarre that he wouldn't know that before departure. Perhaps due to weather conditions that changed while en route?"
"My guess is something in the weather triggered a change and the pilot either couldn't or wasn't comfortable with the changing conditions," suggested a person.
