BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The pilot of a regional airliner flying over North Dakota made an unexpected sharp turn to avoid a possible midair collision with a military B-52 bomber that was in its flight path over the weekend.
The Friday incident is detailed in a video taken by a passenger and posted to social media as Delta Flight 3788 approached the Minot International Airport for landing. In the video, the SkyWest pilot can be heard over the plane’s intercom system explaining that he made the hard bank after spotting a B-52 bomber in his flight path.
“Sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise,” the pilot can be heard saying on the video. “This is not normal at all. I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads up.”
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed Monday that a B-52 bomber assigned to nearby Minot Air Force Base conducted a flyover Friday of the North Dakota State Fair, which is held in Minot. The Air Force is “looking into” the incident, the spokesman said.
The North Dakota incident comes nearly six months after a midair collision between an Army helicopter and a jetliner over Washington, D.C., that killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft. That collision and subsequent close calls with Army helicopters over the nation’s capital put the spotlight on the interaction between military and civilian flights. Officials have focused on improving communications between the two and making sure that air traffic controllers know where military aircraft are at all times because the Army helicopters around Washington were flying with a key locating device turned off.
SkyWest, a regional carrier for Delta and other large airlines, said the Friday flight had departed from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and landed safely in Minot after performing a “go-around” maneuver when another aircraft became visible in the SkyWest plane’s flight path. Minot is 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Bismarck, North Dakota’s capital city, and about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Canadian border.
Minot Air Force Base is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Minot, North Dakota’s fourth-largest city. The base is home to 26 B-52 bombers, intercontinental ballistic missile operations and more than 5,400 military personnel.
In the video, the pilot noted that Minot’s small airport does not operate radar and directs flights visually. When the airport tower instructed the SkyWest flight to make a right turn upon approach, the pilot said he looked in that direction and saw the bomber in his flight path. He informed the tower and made a hard turn to avoid the bomber, he said.
“I don’t know how fast they were going, but they were a lot faster than us,” the pilot said of the bomber.
Passengers can be heard applauding as the pilot wrapped up his explanation.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a statement Monday morning simply saying it’s investigating the incident. By midafternoon, it had issued a second statement to note that air traffic services were provided by a private company that services the Minot air traffic control tower.
“These controllers are not FAA employees,” the agency said.
Some small airports like Minot’s don’t have their own radar systems on site. In fact, the vast majority of the nation’s airports don’t even have towers. But regional FAA radar facilities do oversee traffic all across the country and help direct planes in and out of airports like Minot. The Minot airport typically handles between 18 and 24 flights a day.
The pilot’s frustration is evident in the video.
“The Air Force base does have radar, and nobody said, ‘Hey, there’s a B-52 in the pattern,’” the pilot told passengers.
SkyWest said it is also investigating.
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This story has been corrected to show the dateline is Bismarck, North Dakota, not Bismarck, Nebraska, and that the pilot turned the plane to avoid the bomber’s path.
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Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska. AP writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha.
