Information has emerged of an incident involving a pilot qualification issue onboard Alaska Airlines flight AS3491 San Francisco-Jackson which diverted to Salt Lake City.
Such details have finally been released into the mainstream, which we will cover in this article.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Alaska Airlines AS3491 – San Francisco-Jackson: Salt Lake City Diversion…
Alaska Airlines flight AS3491, which diverted to Salt Lake City due to a pilot qualification issue, was a routine scheduled flight between San Francisco and Jackson.
Furthermore, it is understood the aircraft involved in the incident was N170SY.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N170SY is a 9.3 year old Embraer E175 that was delivered to SkyWest Airlines in June 2015.
SkyWest operate the aircraft for Alaska Airlines.
Moreover, of the E175 variant, AS have 86 of them in their fleet.
Also, of that 86, all but one are in active service, with an average fleet age of 5.5 years.
As well as the E175, Alaska Airlines have the following other aircraft in their mainline fleet:
- 14 Boeing 737-700s.
- 61 Boeing 737-800s.
- 12 Boeing 737-900s.
- 79 Boeing 737-900ERs.
- 5 Boeing 737 MAX 8s.
- 70 Boeing 737 MAX 9s.
Alaska Airlines flight AS3491, which diverted to Salt Lake City with a pilot qualification issue, departed San Francisco at 0845 local time on August 8 and tracked east to Jackson.
Near their destination, the crew entered a hold and then proceeded to deviate south.
From there, the aircraft landed safely into the diversion field without further incident after around two hours and 45 minutes in the air.
Pilot Qualification Issue The Cause…
As per Flyer Talk, it is understood one of the pilots didn’t have the proper qualification to land into Jackson.
The pilot onboard Alaska Airlines flight AS3482 San Francisco-Jackson said the following to passengers during the diversion to Salt Lake City:
“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”.
Following the landing, passengers remained on the ground for 90 minutes.
Once a crew change was made, the aircraft continued on to Jackson Hole safely.
SkyWest, which operates the aircraft for the airline said that this was due to a “paperwork error related to the flight crew”.
But they then said that all pilots involved were qualified to fly and land the aircraft.
Overall, they placed this down as an internal administrative error.
As soon as we get more information on this incident, then we will update you accordingly.
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