Pilot Apologizes for ‘Aggressive Maneuver’ to Avoid Collision With Military Bomber: ‘Not a Fun Day at Work’
(AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
A commercial flight carrying civilians came dangerously close to a midair collision with a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber near Minot International Airport in North Dakota, forcing the pilot to make an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid the bomber.
SkyWest flight 3788, operating as a Delta Connection service from Minneapolis, was on final approach to Minot on Friday when the terrifying incident occurred.
One passenger uploaded her recording of the pilot’s unusually candid address to the cabin in the moments after, where he slammed the Air Force for failing to give him a “heads up.”
After managing to avoid the bomber the pilot spoke to passengers about what had happened:
For those of you on the right hand side, you probably saw the airplane kind of coming at us. Nobody told us about it. And so we continued on air traffic. And there’s no radar here. So the tower is controlled, or excuse me, the tower does everything visually. And so they said report about a six mile, six miles from the airport. So we did that.”
I think he realized that the spacing wasn’t gonna work and he said ‘turn right.’ And I looked over and there was an airplane, which those of you on the right-hand side [would have seen]. I thought it was a small airplane like the one you see at the airport right now doing touch-and-goes.
The pilot detailed the confusing back and forth with air traffic control as the planes drew closer to one another:
And he said, ‘turn right.’ I said: ‘There’s an airplane over there.’ And he says, ‘turn left.’ And then by the time we read back the clearance, looked over and saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us. And so given his speed, it was a military – 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.
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 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 not a fun day at work for me. Have a nice evening and glad you’re safe.
The plane landed safely, but the incident has triggered an internal investigation by SkyWest. The airline confirmed that the flight had been cleared by the tower before the sudden go-around, prompted by the bomber’s appearance on the flight path.
Mediaite has contacted SkyWest Airlines for comment.
