Flight Diverted After Pilot Admits To Being Unqualified: Report

An Alaska Airlines passenger claims their recent flight was diverted after the pilot admitted to not being properly qualified to land the plane.

Reddit user @babecityrecords shared a post on the Alaska Airlines subreddit about their alleged experience on a flight from Portland to Jackson Hole, which included a layover in San Francisco.

“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. We’ll keep you posted on the next steps,'” the Redditor wrote. “We then landed in Salt Lake City, they again apologized and gave us no other info, waited on the tarmac for about an 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.

“This time, we did land in Jackson, but it was perhaps the bumpiest landing in the descent I’ve ever experienced.”

The Redditor said the incident delayed their scheduled landing by “about three hours” and asked if others had experienced a similar situation. Another Redditor presumed that the pilots “were recently qualified to land at JAC (because they would not be allowed to fly the route otherwise — regulations would have triggered a crew swap), but they felt that they were not experienced/confident to deal with the winds or another condition that day.”

“Therefore that made the pilots decide to abort the landing and err on the safe side,” the commenter added. “This shows the system of checks/balances and communication with ATC works — this should make you less nervous about flying in the future.”

Alaska Airlines’ website includes a policy that states, “If, due to circumstances within our control, your flight is delayed by three hours or more, or canceled such that you must wait three hours or more for a new flight, we’ll offer a reasonable meal to each ticketed guest at the airport,” but notes that “specific options may depend on airport vendor availability,” as the Redditor questioned whether they were in line for compensation given their circumstance.