The captain of a regional flight carrying 80 people said he was forced to make a sharp turn as a B-52 approached rapidly
The pilot of a US regional flight had to make “an aggressive maneuver” to avoid a mid-air collision with a B-52 bomber in North Dakota on Friday, according to a recording of an announcement to passengers published on social media.
A Delta Airlines flight operated by SkyWest was on final approach to Minot, North Dakota, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, when a B-52 Stratofortress from a nearby Air Force Base appeared without warning.
“Sorry about the aggressive maneuver,” the captain told passengers after the landing on Friday in a video posted on Instagram.
The pilot said he saw a plane “coming on a convergent course” too fast on his right side, while the Minot airport control tower was giving instructions visually without radar.
“You probably saw the airplane sort of coming at us from the right,” he explained. Considering its speed it was a military aircraft, he added.
“I felt it was the safest thing to do to turn behind it,” the pilot told the passengers.
The captain noted that the B-52’s home base had radar, expressing confusion over why the crew was not given advance warning.
Passenger Monica Green, who recorded the pilot’s post-landing remarks, told the New York Times that the plane banked so sharply that her window view shifted from the sky to the ground. All 76 passengers and four crew members landed safely, SkyWest confirmed.
The US Air Force acknowledged that a B-52 from Minot base conducted an approved flyover for the North Dakota state fair Friday evening. The base stated “the airport did not advise of the inbound commercial aircraft,” according to ABC News.
Both SkyWest, and the Federal Aviation Administration said in their statements that they were investigating what happened.
Friday’s near collision between a military and civilian aircraft follows a deadly incident in January when a military Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. All 64 people aboard the plane and three on the helicopter were killed.
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