Passengers on board Alaska Airlines flight 3492, operated by regional partner SkyWest, experienced an unexpected diversion that left many scratching their heads. The flight departed from San Francisco bound for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but was rerouted to Salt Lake City when the pilot revealed he wasn’t qualified to land at the destination airport.
The flight on August 8th, 2024, seemed routine until it approached its descent into Jackson Hole. As passengers prepared for landing, a passenger reports that the pilot announced:
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.
The plane then made its way to Salt Lake City, where it remained on the tarmac for about an hour and a half before a new pilot arrived to take over.
The replacement pilot successfully landed the aircraft in Jackson Hole, but not without some added drama. Passengers described the landing as one of the bumpiest they had ever experienced, adding to the overall stress of the situation. By the time they finally arrived, the flight was three hours behind schedule.
The key question that arose from this incident was: How did a pilot end up on a flight to an airport he wasn’t qualified to land at? A scheduling error seems unlikely. Even if the airline made a mistake, along the lines of when American Airlines flew a plane to Hawaii that wasn’t qualified for overwater operations, I fully imagine that the pilot would reject the assignment.
Perhaps not being qualified wasn’t a formal statement, as much as an expression that the captain didn’t feel confident at the controls in the particular wind scenario that later led to a bumpy landing. Jackson Hole is at an elevation of over 6,500 feet and surrounded by the Teton Mountains, and is known for its tricky approaches.
The pilot also may have encountered higher ‘minimums’ than expected on approach to the airport given their qualifications and current conditions at the time of arrival. Clearly a decision was made based on safety, though the communication wasn’t reassuring.
Update: According to SkyWest,
On Thursday, Aug. 8, SkyWest Airlines flight 3491, operating as Alaska Airlines from San Fransisco 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.
@Tom Dually
Google “high minimum# PIC”, yes happens ALL THE TIME…. I would have phrased the PA announcement differently regardless..I would have just said “the weather forced us to divert to our alternate” to prevent people like you from going into hysterics.
@Turbulent skies – Sorry, weather was fine at KJAC. Not a weather-related diversion.
@ Ron. Well stated . . .”I prefer being delayed to being an insurance claim.”
I’ll go with a case of a blown weather forecast for a high minimums Captain. Jackson Hole is an FAA Special PIC Qualification Airport.
@ Jim Thurber . . . Michael is essentially correct (Flying long distances over water requires ETOPS certification) but it’s not just “over water.” ETOPS (Engines Turning or Passengers Swimming) it’s the lack of a suitable alternate airport and is based on fuel required, with loss of pressurization usually being the most restrictive for most operations.
But the thought of flying for 360 minutes (sounds much better than 6 hours) on a single engine emergency operation doesn’t appeal to me.
Soon AI will be flying planes, pilots will be handing out peanuts and warm water to the unlucky chump passengers.
Jackson Hole is a Special Qualification Airport. He/She should never been scheduled. It’s possible the Captain didn’t know about the requirement until reviewing the approach information.
JAC is a special qual airport. It requires a checkout from an instructor pilot before being signed off and qualified to land there. Scheduling and the captain dropped the ball on this one. He should have never been scheduled to fly this route and he should have never accepted the assignment. Poor choice of words during his PA announcement as well.
As for the subsequent bumpy ride. JAC is a notorious for bumpy rides. Especially when thunderstorms are in the area as they were on this day. It’s a high elevation airport surrounded by high mountain terrain.
Kudos to the pilot, safety first, ALWAYS.
As Dan77W said….its most likely a high min situation. There are a ton of forest fires going on now out west right now and the resulting smoke has been obscene. She/He likely took off for JAC with reported visibility above her/his higher minimums then enroute the smoke moved in and just like that SLC is the new destination. The only thing the pilot apparently did wrong was not using that moment as a teaching moment for his pax by explaining what was going on..
Picard
Gary..come on ! You are an aviation veteran and know better than to write such a misleading headline.
You know all pilots stay on high mins until 100 hrs in fleet type.
It’s better that the pilot admitted to the problem rather than try to force a landing.
This was a Skywest flight.
SkyWest Airlines operates through partnerships with United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines
Not a high mins or weather issue. JAC is a SAAT IV airport due to the mountainous terrain and complicated approaches meaning it requires additional training which the captain apparently did not have. If he was a reserve replacing a last minute sick call by a different captain, this would be a very easy mistake to make. Crew scheduling should have caught this issue, though he should have earlier as well.
So if a pilot has never landed at a particular airport before, wouldn’t one check the requirements before accepting the schedule or has the airline industry succumb to the standards of that’s not my job and leave the responsibility to someone else.