SkyWest flight performed 'go-around' to avoid colliding with a second aircraft

NBC News

21-07-2025

A SkyWest flight had to perform a go-around maneuver after nearly colliding with a military aircraft Friday before it landed in North Dakota.
The air traffic control tower had cleared the plane to approach the airport, but the pilot "performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path," a SkyWest statement said.
Delta flight 3788 operated by SkyWest landed safely in Minot, North Dakota, after flying in from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the airline said.
SkyWest said it is investigating the incident.
The Department of Defense referred NBC News to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA said it is "gathering information" about the incident.
The near-miss Friday comes just six months after a military helicopter collided with a passenger plane near Reagan National Airport in D.C., killing 67 people.
In video posted to social media and verified by NBC News, the plane's pilot can be heard explaining to passengers what happened in the air and apologizing for what he called an "aggressive maneuver," according to the video.
The pilot explained that he was instructed by the ATC tower to turn right, but when he looked over, he saw an aircraft that he identified as a B-52 bomber. He said he was then instructed to turn left, but at that point, he looked over and "saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us."
The second aircraft was moving faster than the SkyWest plane, the pilot said, so he made the decision to turn behind it.
"So, sorry about 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."
The pilot concluded: "Long story short, it was not fun, but I do apologize for it, and thank you for understanding." His message was met with applause from the passengers, the video shows.
The passenger who filmed the video, Monica Green, said she was "so sick to my stomach that that was so close to happening."
She said she felt the plane 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, like you weren't seeing the skyline anymore," she recalled. She said she's anxious to return to the airport in Minot to fly home.
In the video, the pilot also mentioned that the tower that serves the Minot International Airport does not have a radar and controllers rely only on visuals to make calls.
The Air Force Base nearby does have radar, the pilot said, which caused him to wonder why nobody said, "Hey, there's also a B-52 in the pattern."
Jeff Guzzetti, NBC News aviation analyst, said the lack of radar capability at smaller airport is not at all uncommon.
"There are many small airports across the country that have commercial service that don't have radar. Instead, they'll have some sort of coordinating communication with another radar facility several miles away, perhaps with a military base," Guzzetti explained.
Since the airport in Minot is so small, the federal government allows it to be a "contract tower," Guzzetti said. This means the air traffic controllers are not federal employees, but are contractors hired by the FAA who are usually retired controllers.
Contract towers are also not unheard of, he explained — there are currently 265 of them in the U.S.
The key question to answer, Guzzetti said, is how much coordination there was between the Air Force base and the airport.
'I wouldn't think that you would need a more powerful radar system or a larger tower to prevent things like this,' Guzzetti said. "I just think that you need good coordination between the military base and the local civilian airport to work together to avoid these types of near misses."