The pilot of a commercial airliner has said he needed to make an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid colliding with a US air force B-52 bomber as it landed in Minot, North Dakota, on Friday.
The SkyWest airlines pilot said he had been cleared to land on a trip from Minneapolis-St Paul (MSP) to Minot when he spotted the vast nuclear-capable bomber on his right side and was told to go around.
“Nobody told us about it,” the pilot told passengers over the plane’s loudspeaker later, according to a video posted on social media.
“I thought it was a small airplane, like the ones you see at the airport right now doing touch and go’s. And he said ‘turn right,’ and I said, ‘There’s an airplane over there,’ and he says ‘turn left,’ and by the time we read back the clearance, we looked over and saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a convergent course with us.”
The pilot told the passengers that the safest thing to do was turn behind the other airplane, given its speed, according to the Minot Daily News.
“So, sorry for the aggressive maneuver,” the pilot said. “It caught me by surprise, and it’s not normal at all. I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads up, because the airbase does have radar, and nobody said, ‘Hey there’s also a B-52 in the pattern.’”
The pilot described the experience as “not a fun day at work”.
A B-52H with the Fifth Bomb Wing based at Minot air force base had been conducting a flyover of the North Dakota state fair held around the same time, according to military officials.
The SkyWest flight, on an Embraer E175 operating as a Delta connection, landed at approximately 8pm. Flight tracking data showed the flight on descent before making a sharp right turn while also showing the B-52 performing ellipses in the area.
Monica Green described the atmosphere on board as “weirdly calm” despite the unexpected evasive maneuvers.
“Honestly, everyone was weirdly calm. I felt like I was gaslighting myself, like maybe I was being crazy, because no one else was reacting,” Green told local news station KFYR.
“We took a really hard turn, and that’s when the pilot got on the intercom and said, ‘Sorry, everybody, I’ll explain everything when we land safely.’ The way he said it, it almost sounded like he was insinuating that landing safely might not be an option for a moment. We all just kind of looked at each other and stayed quiet.”
Green also said the pilot was “very casual, if you can be casual about something like that, but you could tell he was stressed”.
“He was almost shaking, trying to find the right words, but he was nice and detailed,” Green said. “It felt good that they weren’t just going to brush it off.”
When the plane landed, she added, “It was really quiet. No one stood up right away like people normally do. At the airport, I heard some people saying their friends saw it from the ground. The other plane nearly hit us, and it went so low it passed under us.”
SkyWest said in a statement that the plane was cleared to land, but the pilot “performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path”. The airline said all 76 passengers and four crew members aboard landed safely.
SkyWest and the Federal Aviation Administration said they were investigating the incident.
The air force also told the Washington Post it was “aware of the recent reporting regarding commercial and air force aircraft operating in airspace around Minot international airport. We are currently looking into the matter”.
The incident comes amid increased anxiety over communications between commercial and military flights after an army helicopter collided with a passenger jet in January near Reagan national airport outside Washington DC, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
Another incident involving a SkyWest flight also made national headlines recently. SkyWest flight 3612 was headed to Detroit on Thursday when it made an emergency landing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after a passenger fought with a flight attendant and tried to open an exit door midair, according to the Associated Press.
Local police boarded and arrested the passenger – of Omaha, Nebraska – after the flight landed, the AP reported.
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