Moment shaken Delta pilot apologises after jet almost crashes with B-52 bomber
The pilot of a regional airliner flying over North Dakota was forced to carry out an unexpected sharp turn and later apologised to passengers, explaining that he made the move after spotting a military plane in his flight path.
The incident, which happened on Friday, is detailed in a video recorded 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 left turn after spotting a B-52 bomber in his flight path.
"Sorry about the aggressive maneuvre. 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."
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" maneuvre when another aircraft became visible in the SkyWest plane's flight path. Minot is 100 miles (160km) north of Bismarck, North Dakota's capital city, and about 50 miles (80km) 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 left instead, he said.
"Given his speed ... I don't know how fast they were going, but they were a lot faster than us, I felt it was the safest thing to do to turn behind it," the pilot said of the bomber. At this point, he performed a go-around which startled many of the passengers.
Apologising for the incident, the pilot continued: "So sorry about the aggressive maneuver, it caught me by surprise, this is not normal at all. I don't know why they didn't give us a heads up, because the Air Force base does have radar. Not a fun day at work."
The North Dakota incident comes nearly six months after a mid-air 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 (16km) 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. 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.
After the plane touched down without incident, grateful passengers praised the pilot for his openness throughout the journey. Passenger Monica Green told KFYR TV: "He was very casual, if you can be casual about something like that, but you could tell he was stressed. He was almost shaking, trying to find the right words, but he was nice and detailed. It felt good that they weren't just going to brush it off."
SkyWest Airlines, which operated the flight, released a statement to the New York Post saying: "SkyWest flight 3788, operating as Delta Connection from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Minot, North Dakota on July 18, landed safely in Minot after being cleared for approach by the tower but performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path. We are investigating the incident."
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