US passenger jet has close call with B-52 bomber
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A passenger jet performed an “aggressive manoeuvre” to avoid a mid-air collision with a United States (US) military bomber over the state of North Dakota, according to recorded audio of the commercial pilot.
Delta Flight 3788, operated by SkyWest, took off from Minneapolis and was approaching the city of Minot 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.
“Sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise, this is not normal at all.”
SkyWest was investigating the Friday incident. 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 did not provide specifics about the near miss but confirmed in a statement reported by the Washington Post that a B-52 bomber was performing a flyover at the North Dakota State Fair, which occurred in Minot.
The northern city, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Canada border, is home to a commercial airport and a US Air Force base.
In the video, posted to Instagram and verified by Storyful, the SkyWest pilot told passengers that “nobody told us” about the other plane.
He said the Minot tower, which does not use radar — a common situation in 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 according to the video.
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 aircrafts.
The disaster prompted federal authorities and Congress to review coordination between military and civilian aircraft flying in the same airspace.
