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.
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.
“...you pop over the mountain and descend pretty quickly...”
“Tower - this is Bravo829. Did you say Jackson -— WYOMING!?”
Knowing that airport was his final destination, I question why he accepted the flight in the first place.
One of my first times flying in a small plane, we crossed the mountain next to the airport after a long climb, and hit a downdraft.
Didn’t need to change my pants, but it was close. Mountains next to airports create very tricky wind patterns.