(NewsNation) — An Alaska Airlines/SkyWest flight was forced to divert and get a new pilot after the first reportedly told passengers he was not qualified to land in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
A traveler claimed on Reddit that their Aug. 8 flight — from Portland, Ore. to Jackson Hole, with a layover in San Francisco — had to regroup after a confession from the pilot.
Here’s what the pilot apparently told passengers, per reports: “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.”
FlightAware data shows the aircraft left San Francisco ahead of schedule and made a standard approach to JAC — but never closed in on the ground. It circled the airport before darting off to Salt Lake City, nearly 300 miles away.
The passengers were stuck on the plane for another 90 minutes while Alaska Airlines tracked down a pilot who was qualified to land there. They finally arrived in Jackson Hole at 2:55 p.m., more than three hours after the scheduled arrival time.
SkyWest blamed Flight 3491’s diversion on paperwork error with the flight crew.
“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,” the airline said in a statement to PEOPLE. “We apologize to customers for the inconvenience and are conducting an internal review to ensure a similar situation does not occur in the future.”
Retired United Airlines pilot Sheila Bodee tells NewsNation both the pilot and the airline should have been aware — as a special pilot in command qualified has been a requirement to land at JAC since 1990.