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NBC News
7 days ago
- NBC News
SkyWest flight performed 'go-around' to avoid colliding with a second aircraft
A SkyWest flight had to perform a go-around maneuver after nearly colliding with a military aircraft Friday before it landed in North Dakota. The air traffic control tower had cleared the plane to approach the airport, but the pilot "performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path," a SkyWest statement said. Delta flight 3788 operated by SkyWest landed safely in Minot, North Dakota, after flying in from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the airline said. SkyWest said it is investigating the incident. The Department of Defense referred NBC News to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA said it is "gathering information" about the incident. The near-miss Friday comes just six months after a military helicopter collided with a passenger plane near Reagan National Airport in D.C., killing 67 people. In video posted to social media and verified by NBC News, the plane's pilot can be heard explaining to passengers what happened in the air and apologizing for what he called an "aggressive maneuver," according to the video. The pilot explained that he was instructed by the ATC tower to turn right, but when he looked over, he saw an aircraft that he identified as a B-52 bomber. He said he was then instructed to turn left, but at that point, he looked over and "saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us." The second aircraft was moving faster than the SkyWest plane, the pilot said, so he made the decision to turn behind it. "So, sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise," the pilot said in the video. "This is not normal at all. I don't know why they didn't give us a heads up." The pilot concluded: "Long story short, it was not fun, but I do apologize for it, and thank you for understanding." His message was met with applause from the passengers, the video shows. The passenger who filmed the video, Monica Green, said she was "so sick to my stomach that that was so close to happening." She said she felt the plane take a hard turn and then, "I just remember the plane going, like, sideways... and just looking straight out the window and just seeing grass, like you weren't seeing the skyline anymore," she recalled. She said she's anxious to return to the airport in Minot to fly home. In the video, the pilot also mentioned that the tower that serves the Minot International Airport does not have a radar and controllers rely only on visuals to make calls. The Air Force Base nearby does have radar, the pilot said, which caused him to wonder why nobody said, "Hey, there's also a B-52 in the pattern." Jeff Guzzetti, NBC News aviation analyst, said the lack of radar capability at smaller airport is not at all uncommon. "There are many small airports across the country that have commercial service that don't have radar. Instead, they'll have some sort of coordinating communication with another radar facility several miles away, perhaps with a military base," Guzzetti explained. Since the airport in Minot is so small, the federal government allows it to be a "contract tower," Guzzetti said. This means the air traffic controllers are not federal employees, but are contractors hired by the FAA who are usually retired controllers. Contract towers are also not unheard of, he explained — there are currently 265 of them in the U.S. The key question to answer, Guzzetti said, is how much coordination there was between the Air Force base and the airport. 'I wouldn't think that you would need a more powerful radar system or a larger tower to prevent things like this,' Guzzetti said. "I just think that you need good coordination between the military base and the local civilian airport to work together to avoid these types of near misses."
NBC News
19-07-2025
- NBC News
The Texas floods washed away their possessions. Volunteers are helping reunite them.
From jewelry to a heart-shaped summer camp sign, these are some of the objects found in the wake of this month's devastating floods. July 19, 2025, 7:00 AM EDT By Daniel Arkin Matthew Rafferty was scouring the flooded riverbanks of Texas Hill Country last weekend when he stumbled on a mud-soaked baby quilt. Rafferty, a Virginia firefighter who was deployed to hard-hit Kerr County to help with search and recovery efforts, folded it up and took it back to his hotel. He rinsed it off in the bathtub. He worried the drain might clog because of all the filth, tree roots and rocks that came out. But the tub survived and, after a trip to the laundromat, the quilt was virtually good as new. He posted a photo of the blanket on a Facebook group where people across central Texas are keeping track of things they've recovered from the devastation: waterlogged clothes, stuffed animals, Barbie dolls, marriage licenses, family photo albums. Rafferty eventually connected with the quilt's owner and hand-delivered it to her. 'I'm a father of 3-year-old twin boys. I know if I'd gone through something like these quilts, I'd want it back,' said Rafferty, 34. Rafferty is part of a loose network of first responders, volunteers and good Samaritans who have fanned out across the region to help reunite Texans with the cherished belongings, family heirlooms and everyday household knickknacks that were swept away when floods ripped through Kerr County over Fourth of July weekend, killing more than 130 people and leaving at least 100 missing. This week, NBC News spoke with people in the region about the objects that have turned up in the floods' aftermath — and why they matter. In some cases, seemingly trivial items have taken on far greater emotional significance in the wake of the deadly floods. These are some of their stories. The jewelry Patty Hyatt was inside her mobile home with her 8-year-old grandson and her new beagle puppy early July 4 when her son called. The floodwaters were rising fast and they needed to get to higher ground as soon as possible, he told her. Hyatt, a 67-year-old retired teacher, loaded everyone into her Toyota Tacoma and headed to her son's house, leaving most of her things behind. When she returned to the Old River Road RV Resort the following morning, her 42-foot Forest River home was gone, washed away by the floods. She was heartbroken. 'I just lost stuff, not loved ones,' she said — but most objects in her home were associated with special 'memories' and she was sorry to see them go. That's where Dondi Persyn stepped in. Persyn, 54, posted a photo of some of Hyatt's jewelry on 'FOUND on the Guadalupe River,' a Facebook page she created that she runs with the help of friends. The jewelry had turned up in Center Point, roughly 10 miles from Kerrville. Persyn, who used to own a vintage store, spent a night untangling and cleaning Hyatt's necklaces and bracelets by hand, restoring some of their luster. It turned out that during the flash flooding, Hyatt's orange clamshell necklace and other pieces had been fortuitously held together by a pink string — a bracelet that a student had made for Hyatt more than a decade ago. In that, Hyatt saw rich symbolism. 'The children have always held me together,' Hyatt said. 'They're still holding me together.' The totem pole Ten years ago, Shelby Johnson bought something on a lark from a merchant in San Antonio: a hand-carved and painted totem pole. She named it 'Oonka Oonka.' The totem pole was a highlight of her annual spring break parties, and it stood proudly on the back porch of her boyfriend's house, located on a secluded stretch between Center Point and the town of Comfort. Flash-forward to the chaos of July Fourth: Johnson, 53, and her boyfriend, J.R. Haas, fled to higher ground in their trucks before the floods deluged his house. When they returned, they discovered most of their possessions were destroyed, the house reduced to a 'disgusting, muddy mess.' They found the remains of one of her three cats, a kitten named Fancy, and realized Johnson's Volkswagen Jetta had floated down the road. Apparently, so had Oonka Oonka. The totem pole was found off a riverbank in Comfort by Cory Nicholson, a 40-year-old volunteer searcher and roofing contractor who posted his discovery on the Facebook page. The wooden sculpture had emerged intact and mostly unscathed. 'It was in close to perfect condition,' Nicholson said. Oonka Oonka has been returned to Johnson, who sees her 10-year-old purchase in a different light. 'He's turned into a symbol of survival now,' she said. The camp sign Brandon Hamrick and his wife, Shanndel, volunteered to help search for bodies just a day after raging waters tore through the region. They were combing through a riverbed near their home in Center Point on July 5 when they found a 2-by-2-foot wooden sign in the shape of a heart. It was a remnant of Heart O' the Hills, a summer camp for girls in the flood-battered community of Hunt. Hamrick, 47, wiped mud off the face of the sign. The white paint was torn and chipped in some spots, but he could make out inscriptions from campers — including one apparently dated 1992. 'I could see the names of all these girls on there. I felt joyous, in a way, because I knew I could bring it back to them,' Hamrick said. He believed returning the sign to Heart O' the Hills could bring a small measure of solace to a community mourning the loss of Jane Ragsdale, the camp's co-owner and director, who died in the floods. (The camp was not in session during the disaster.) Brandon and Shanndel, who build custom pickup trucks for a living, found children's toys along the riverbed, too — a tiny doll with long blond hair, a 'Paw Patrol' stuffed animal. They gathered up as much as they could. The Hamricks plan to drive out to the camp to hand-deliver the sign to the surviving owners. The memorial bench Four years ago this month Patricia Jernigan's daughter Shannon died from breast cancer. She was 50. The two women lived together in Texas Hill Country. They enjoyed their lives in the area; Shannon was a material program manager for the supply chain at A7 Defense & Aerospace and in her spare time admired Kerr County's population of white-tailed deer. In honor of Shannon's life, Patricia installed a commemorative bench at Lehmann-Monroe Park, a 27-acre patch of land west of the Guadalupe River. The park was thrashed during the floods, and the bench was apparently swept away to nearby Louise Hays Park. That's where it was discovered by Orlando 'Orly' Ayala, a 38-year-old volunteer searcher. Ayala was digging through piles of debris when he spotted the bench at the base of a cypress tree on the night of July 10. 'I cleaned it off and I realized, 'Wow, this is really something,'' said Ayala. Patricia, 77, said she wants the bench to be reinstalled in Kerrville after the area is cleaned up. The plaque that had been affixed to the bench has gone missing, but she hopes it is found. That way, passersby and animal watchers can read the poem under Shannon's name — five rhyming lines Patricia wrote in her daughter's memory: When it comes to God's critters big or small she wanted to feed them one and all But when it came to deer, such gentle souls she loved to feed them with hands and bowls Forever we will love the heart of this baby girl. Daniel Arkin Daniel Arkin is a national reporter at NBC News.
NBC News
07-07-2025
- NBC News
Death toll rises to at least 104 in catastrophic Texas flooding
At least 104 people are dead after catastrophic flooding ravaged central Texas on July 4. A century-old Christian camp for girls, Camp Mystic, confirmed 27 of its campers and counselors are among the dead and missing. NBC News' Tom Llamas reports on the lives lost and remarkable stories of 7, 2025
