Posted on 08/14/2024 8:10:19 PM PDT by logi_cal869
Passengers aboard an Alaska Airlines flight bound for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, were miffed last week after the pilot explained over the intercom that he could not land the plane at their destination. Instead, the flight was diverted to Salt Lake City.
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“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 pilot explained.
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After the flight diversion to Salt Lake, the Reddit poster said the pilot offered no further explanation and simply left the plane.
“[T]he 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 passenger posted.
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The Jackson Hole Airport is at an elevation of over 6,451 feet and is framed by the Teton Range, soaring more than 13,000 feet in elevation. Experienced pilots report the approach as “tricky” because of frequent downdrafts and windshear, combined with a short runway.
The complexities of landing at JAC earn the airport a Special PIC (pilot in command) qualification for the airport — in place since 1990 — as well as a SAAT level 4 rating, requiring a more experienced line check airman sitting copilot.
Each individual airline has its own standards of training requiring varying minimum hours of flight time.
Many qualified captains with thousands of flight hours may not meet company minimums behind the wheel of a particular aircraft or flying into certain airports with ceiling and visibility minimum requirements.
(Excerpt) Read more at cowboystatedaily.com ...
I found this informative article to post. For those interested in aviation: It's a good example of a royal administrative screwup at either SW or AA.
Now, whether the pilot chickened out when faced with a bit of weather is another discussion altogether, and in this woke climate - airlines are infected with DEI - it is not something that can be easily dismissed.
Should be an entertaining thread and a nice diversion...
“A man has got to know his limitations.” —Harry Callahan
disclaimer - my father was a carrier qualified Navy pilot.
I give him credit for not trying something for which he was not qualified to do. We have a local airport (Drake Field in Fayetteville) that has a mountain on one side and landing there (depending on wind direction) you pop over the mountain and descend pretty quickly and it was a decent sized plane (737). Better the diversion to SLC than having an accident.
I’ve landed there before coming from Denver in a prop plane. Seems like we made big circles in the clouds before we lost enough elevation to land.
Better safe than sorry. The pilot did the right thing even though the passengers were inconvenienced. Better inconvenienced than dead in a fireball.
Not only did the pilot know he was unqualified, but so did Alaska Airlines.
The FAA should sanction them both.
Aren’t there supposed to be two pilots?
You’re missing the (my) point.
It’s perfectly plausible that SkyWest Airlines or Alaska Airlines ‘dei’ dictated advancement for a rather unqualified pilot and this assignment came back to bite someone on the backside when a manager who obviously had some ‘pull’ compelled the diversion.
As the article cites, each airline has its own requirements. Someone at AA probably was reviewing the flight assignments for SA and caught the error (it was a Skywest aircraft/aircrew flying for AA).
If it was just the pilot, they’d never have gotten in the air if he/she/it was responsible because it’s 100% certain the flight crew knew their destination.
I love my grandfather’s stories of the daredevil flyers of the 1920’s who flew between Oakland CA and Reno NV.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) In Aviation
Diversity is about bringing together different people with their differences – whatever those differences may be. The FAA has employee associations and special emphasis programs that work to support individuals from diverse backgrounds, inclusive of:
Gender
Sexual orientation
Race
Ethnicity
Nationality
Disability
Veteran status
These groups of people (and others) have faced adversity and are often underrepresented in many industries and fields. Many federal laws are in place to ensure that every individual has the same rights, and California has even expanded the list of marginalized people on this document.
https://calaero.edu/aviation/diversity-equity-inclusion-dei-aviation/
Fed wokeness impacts everything. My interpretation of dei impacts upon ATC and flight crew shortages - in part due to the jab mandates - is that we will soon see an aviation incident with lives lost and experience the same sort of stonewalling in every other investigation where they shut down the truth.
So he didn’t know beforehand he was flying in to Jackson H? Didn’t he bother to read his flight plan given to him by the dispatcher?
We once sat on the runway in a full flight leaving Eagle County Airport (near Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts; Elevation: 6547.4 ft.) on an unseasonably warm day in March. We had to wait until the air was cold/dense enough for us to be within parameters to take off (!!!).
I am not a white knuckle flyer, at all. But I do have a bit of an engineering background, and understand a little about the functioning of gas turbine engines, and how air density plays with output. I don’t mind admitting I was a little nervous about that take off.
The complexities of landing at JAC earn the airport a Special PIC (pilot in command) qualification for the airport — in place since 1990 — as well as a SAAT level 4 rating, requiring a more experienced line check airman sitting copilot.Someone may correct me if I'm wrong, but as an aviation nut I've NEVER heard of such an occurrence (i.e., diversion due to lack of certification) and it speaks LOUDLY to a wholly unqualified pilot attaining the 'first officer/captain' title because, as I cited in another comment, the supposedly responsible 'captain' knew 100% where he/she/it was flying (and landing) before he/she/it left the gate.Each individual airline has its own standards of training requiring varying minimum hours of flight time.
Many qualified captains with thousands of flight hours may not meet company minimums behind the wheel of a particular aircraft or flying into certain airports with ceiling and visibility minimum requirements.
Yeah, I made that observation in a couple of comments now.
Nice catch.
IMHO it’s less about the lack of certs to land at JHA than being wholly unqualified to operate a commercial aircraft with passengers as first officer.
I think the pilot did the proper and safe thing rather than rolling the dice and saying “hope I make it.”
Unless there were unusal extenuating circumstances, Alaska Airlines should have had a properly rated pilot for the route.
Though I can’t imagine what such circumstances might have been.
“I’d land at a close-by airport, and drive in.”
LOL...do you know that part of the country? SLC is a nearly five hour drive. There’s nothing closer.
Sounded pretty clear to me
“ The complexities of landing at JAC earn the airport a Special PIC (pilot in command) qualification for the airport — in place since 1990 — as well as a SAAT level 4 rating, requiring a more experienced line check airman sitting copilot.”
I completely blame it on the airline. How did they let him fly there?
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