There are some phrases that nobody ever wants to hear while they’re on a plane. One of them is that the pilot isn’t qualified to land the plane. During an August 8th Alaska Airlines flight, a passenger reported an announcement coming through the plane’s speaker system in which the pilot apologized because the flight had to be diverted to Salt Lake City, Utah because the pilot didn’t “have the proper qualification to land in Jackson Hole.” Once on the ground…safely…in Utah, the passengers were forced to wait on the tarmac for about 90 minutes while a new pilot came to finish the journey.
Now the airline has a different story in their official release:
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 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. We apologize to customers for the inconvenience and are conducting an internal review to ensure a similar situation does not occur in the future.