One of the things that no one wants to hear from the pilot on one's plane is that they're not actually qualified to be flying.
While the situation may sound sitcom-worthy, something similar took place on an Alaska Airlines (ALK) flight to Jackson Hole, Wyo. As initially described by a Reddit user on the r/AlaskaAirlines subreddit, the pilot announced that he did not "have the proper qualifications" and the flight operated by Skywest (SKYW) was redirected to nearby Salt Lake City.
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"When we were about to descend into Jackson (literally they already told to prepare for descent), the pilot got on the overhead and said '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,'" a user under the username r/babecityrecords wrote in a post. "We'll keep you posted on the next steps."
What actually went down: Passenger accounts and FlightAware data
While many of the commenters initially cast doubt on whether such a situation could actually play out, FlightAware data shows that the same Embraer ERJ 175 (ERJ) plane running Alaska Airlines/SkyWest Flight 3491 from San Francisco to Jackson Hole was in fact redirected to Salt Lake City.
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"We then landed in Salt Lake City, they again apologized and gave us no other info, waited on the tarmac for about an [sic] 1.5 hours, and then the pilot got off the plane (in a walk of shame since his bag was in the overhead in the back of the plane lol) and then a new pilot from Salt Lake City got on the plane and we flew into Jackson," the Reddit user described further.
Plane-tracking records show that the flight arrived at Jackson Hole at 2:55 p.m instead of the scheduled 11:44 a.m.
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Airline responds: 'Internal administrative error and out of abundance of caution'
SkyWest later also confirmed that Flight 3491 had to be diverted "to correct a paperwork error."
"[The plane] landed for a short time in Salt Lake City to correct a paperwork error related to the flight crew," the airline said in a statement to media outlets. "The flight continued to Jackson Hole after a delay while a new pilot was secured to operate the flight. 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."
While SkyWest is not expanding on what it confirmed further, some speculated that the pilot's qualifications may have only applied to flights in certain weather conditions so the plane had to be diverted after seeing the changing circumstances in Jackson Hole.
Due to the its particularly high altitude and unique weather and geography as a ski resort, Jackson Hole Airport (JAC) requires a higher level of pilot qualification, including a Special Pilot In Command qualification for the airport itself and SAAT Level 4 rating for whoever is the co-pilot. Changing weather conditions likely prompted the last-minute decision but the way the pilot phrased it definitely freaked out many passengers aboard the plane.
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