Near collision between B-52 and SkyWest jet was caught on camera

NBC News

5 days ago

A concertgoer at the North Dakota State Fair recorded footage of a B-52 bomber and a SkyWest jet on a collision course, but he didn't realize he was watching a potential disaster unfolding before his very eyes.
Josh Kadrmas said he was in the crowd on the opening day of the annual fair Friday waiting for the B-52 flyover when he aimed his cellphone at the sky.
' We could see the exhaust from the B-52 far to the east, so I started recording as it was announced to the crowd the B-52 was going to fly over the grandstand," he told NBC News.
What Kadrmas also wound up catching was faint footage of Delta Flight 3788, which is operated by SkyWest, heading into the same airspace as the bomber.
'I didn't think this would be a disaster at the time as the smaller plane was difficult to see from the stands," he said.
Luckily, the disaster was averted when the pilot of the controls of the Minneapolis-to-Minot plane spotted the bomber in time and was able to perform a go-around maneuver to avoid hitting it and land safely at the North Dakota airport.
Meanwhile, the bomber stayed on course and flew over the cheering crowd gathered at the grandstand, a crowd that included North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, who posted shots on X of himself at the fair and of the B-52 in the sky.
Now the Federal Aviation Administration, Air Force and the airline are all investigating the incident, which happened as thousands of people were gathered below on the fairground.
'We are aware of the recent reporting regarding commercial and Air Force aircraft operating in airspace around Minot International Airport," an Air Force spokesperson told the local Minot Daily News. "We are currently looking into the matter."
The FAA stressed the air traffic controllers manning the tower at Minot International Airport work for a commercial contractor.
"These controllers are not FAA employees," the agency said in a statement.
While nobody was hurt, the near miss happened six months after a military helicopter hit a passenger plane near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, killing 67 people.
Neither the airline nor investigators have released the name of the pilot. But in video verified by NBC News that was recorded by passenger Monica Green and posted to social media, the pilot explained to passengers what happened in the air.
The controllers in the tower, the pilot said, told him to turn right but that when he looked over he saw the bomber. He said that he was then instructed to turn left, but at that point he 'saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us" and flying at a faster clip.
So, the pilot said, he made the decision to turn behind the bomber.
Safely on the ground, the pilot apologized for 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.'
Wrapping up, the pilot concluded: 'Long story short, it was not fun, but I do apologize for it, and thank you for understanding.'
The passengers applauded, the video showed.