US authorities probing airliner's close call with B-52 bomber
A Delta flight operated by SkyWest took off on Friday from Minneapolis and was approaching the city of Minot, North Dakota, when the pilot rapidly rerouted after seeing another aircraft nearing from the right.
"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 told passengers, according to recorded audio of the commercial pilot.
"Sorry about the aggressive manoeuvre," he said. "This is not normal at all."
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that US officials are "investigating the event involving SkyWest Airlines Flight 3788 at Minot International Airport on Friday, July 18."
SkyWest said it has also begun a probe. The flight was cleared for approach by the tower "but performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path," the carrier said in a statement reported by US media.
The US Air Force base near Minot confirmed in a statement that a B-52 bomber performed an approved flyover on Friday night at the North Dakota State Fair, and said the crew was communicating with air traffic controllers at Minot's commercial airport.
"The B-52 crew contacted Minot International Airport tower and the tower provided instructions to continue two miles westbound after the flyover. The tower did not advise of the inbound commercial aircraft," it said.
It provided no further details about the near miss.
The northern city, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the Canadian border, is home to a commercial airport and a US Air Force base.
In a passenger video posted to Instagram and verified by Storyful, the SkyWest pilot told passengers he was not made aware about the B-52.
He said the Minot tower, which does not use radar – a common situation at smaller, more remote airfields in the United States – offered guidance that could have put the passenger jet in jeopardy.
"He said 'Turn right.' I said there's an aeroplane over there. And he says 'Turn left,'" the pilot said.
"I don't know why they didn't give us a heads-up because the Air Force base does have radar and nobody said, 'hey there's also a B-52 in the pattern,'" he said.
The passenger who recorded the video, Monica Green, said she was "sick to my stomach" about the near miss.
Green, quoted by NBC News, said she felt the jet 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" with no visible skyline.
The incident comes less than six months after a US Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet approaching Washington's Reagan National Airport, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
The disaster prompted federal authorities and Congress to review coordination between military and civilian aircraft flying in the same airspace.
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