A pilot made sharp turn to avoid a B-52 bomber over North Dakota, then took to the mic to explain

Washington Post

7 days ago

BISMARCK, N.D. — The pilot of a regional airliner flying over North Dakota carried out an unexpected sharp turn and later apologized to passengers, explaining that he made the move after spotting a military plane in his flight path.
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 sharp turn 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.'
Passengers can be heard applauding as the pilot wrapped up his explanation.
SkyWest, a regional carrier for Delta and other large airlines, said the 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.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it's investigating the incident. SkyWest said it is also investigating.
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.
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.
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.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed Monday that a B-52 bomber assigned to the base conducted a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair on Friday and that the Air Force is 'looking into' the report of a bomber and a commercial airliner operating in the same airspace around the Minot airport.
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 fligts 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.
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This story has been corrected to show the dateline is Bismarck, N.D., not Bismarck, Neb., and that the pilot turned the plane to avoid the bomber's path.
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Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska.