Passenger jet pilot makes hard midair turn to avoid B-52 bomber
SkyWest Flight 3788, operating as Delta Connection from Minneapolis, landed safely in Minot, N.D., after the pilot 'performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path,' a SkyWest spokesperson to The Hill.
SkyWest is investigating the incident, the spokesperson added.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it is also investigating the incident, in a statement to NewsNation.
An Air Force spokesperson said it is 'looking into the matter' and confirmed that 'a B-52 aircraft assigned to Minot AFB conducted a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair Friday evening.'
The pilot explained to the flight passengers what took place before he made an 'aggressive maneuver' to avoid a collision and apologized for the incident, according to a recording of his comments posted online by a passenger.
The pilot told the flight that there's no radar in the area, so the 'tower does everything visually' and instructed the passenger jet to report as they were about 6 miles from the airport, which the pilot said they did.
'I think he realized that the spacing wasn't going to work, and he said, 'Turn right,'' the pilot explained.
But the pilot said he saw an aircraft to his right.
'I said, 'There's an airplane over there.' And he says, 'Turn left,'' the pilot added. 'And then by the time we read back the clearance, [we] looked over and saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us.'
The pilot told the flight of passengers that he made a calculated decision to avoid a potential collision.
'And so given his speed — it was a military [aircraft], 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 turn behind it,' he said.
The pilot apologized and said he, too, was caught by surprise and was not given a heads up that the B-52 bomber would be sharing the airspace.
'So sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise. This is not, not normal at all,' 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.''
'Long story short, it was not fun, but I do apologize for it, and thank you for understanding. It was kind of a, not a fun day at work,' the pilot said, prompting applause from the passengers.
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