A Delta jet pilot had to make an ‘aggressive maneuver’ to avoid a mid-air collision with a US Air Force B-52 bomber on Friday night (18 July).
The SkyWest Airlines passenger jet, reportedly operating as a Delta Air Lines connection flight, was en route from Minneapolis-Saint Paul to Minot International Airport in North Dakota when the incident occurred. During the 90-minute flight, the Embraer E175 found itself travelling dangerously close to the B-52 Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base.
To prevent the plane from crashing into the bomber, the pilot reportedly had to think quickly and swerve the aircraft away.
Crew members and passengers onboard the aircraft claimed they could see the US Air Force plane out of their windows, but the atmosphere was still ‘weirdly calm’.
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A spokesperson for SkyWest Airlines told Tyla: "SkyWest flight 3788, operating as Delta Connection from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Minot, North Dakota on July 18, landed safely in Minot after being cleared for approach by the tower but performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path. We are investigating the incident."
A video has since emerged on social media, filmed by one of the passengers named Monica Green, with the audio of the pilot’s explanation of what happened.
In the clip, the pilot can be heard saying over the intercom: “For those of you on the right hand side you probably saw the airplane sort of coming at us - nobody told us about it and so we continued.”
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He continued: “Air traffic - there’s no radar here so the tower does everything visually and they said to report about six miles from the airport so we did that. I think he realised that the spacing wasn’t gonna work and he said turn right, and I looked over and there was an airplane on the right hand side.”
He explained that he was told to turn right but saw there was an airplane over there, so then was instructed to actually turn left.
The pilot continued: “I don’t know how fast they were going but it was a lot faster than us so I thought the best thing to do was turn behind it. So, sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise, it’s not normal at all.
“I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads up because the airport base does have a radar and nobody said anything.”
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He signed off with: “Long story short it was not fun but I do apologise for it and thank you for understanding.”
The plane then seemed to erupt into applause, with the passengers clearly thankful for the pilot’s quick thinking.
Green has since opened up on the ordeal as she told NBC News that she felt ‘so sick to her stomach that that was so close to happening’.
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“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 said.
In a separate interview, Green told KFYR TV: “I felt like I was gaslighting myself, like maybe I was being crazy, because no one else was reacting.
“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.”
She added: “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.”
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Madison Burgess