Unalaska, AK – On Tuesday afternoon the sun was shining, the sky was clear, and the wind wasn't blowing. It should have been an Unalaska airplane passenger's dream conditions

"Oh we were just flying along. It was a great little flight. And the pilot actually came on and said because of high barometric pressure that effected the altimeter, we would have to divert to Cold Bay to wait for lower pressure in Dutch before we could land," recalled passenger Kris-Ann Wilcox. "I leaned up to the flight attendant and said, So what he's saying is that the weather's too nice for us to land in Dutch.' And she laughed and said, I guess you're right.'"

Wilcox said she's only experienced a flight delay during good weather once before, because a local volcano was erupting. This time the problem was the effect of a high pressure system on one of the plane's instruments, the altimeter.

The altimeters take into account barometric pressure from the range of 28 inches to 31 inches. If the barometric pressure exceeds 31 inches, the instruments can misjudge the altitude of the plane and make flying unsafe. According to a source at the Tom Madsen Airport weather station, this is only the second time in Alaska's history that flight has been affected by pleasant weather.

Wilcox said most people on the plane took it in stride. "I think pretty much early on everybody realized that you just have to laugh about it because you're not going to do anything about it being grumpy. We just had a good time joking about the fact it was too nice in Dutch for us to land and we were taking a mini-vacation in Cold Bay that day because we sat there for six hours."

Ultimately the plane was sent back to Anchorage and the passengers flew out again on Wednesday.