A Skywest pilot was forced to make an “aggressive” go-around maneuver on Friday to avoid a collision with another aircraft prior to landing at an airport in North Dakota. The SkyWest Embraer E175 is believed to have almost collided with a B-52 Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base.
In a Sunday statement to The New York Post, Skywest said, “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.”
According to NBC News, the SkyWest Flight 3788 pilot identified the second plane involved in Friday’s incident as a B-52 Stratofortress. The outlet noted that the U.S. Air Force confirmed on Sunday that the military branch was “looking into” reports that a U.S. military aircraft was “operating in the same airspace” as a commercial aircraft. The Air Force also confirmed that a B-52 from Minot Air Force Base executed a flyover at the North Dakota State Fair on Friday.
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A video recorded by a passenger on Delta Flight 3788 features an explanation from the airplane pilot regarding Friday’s “go-around” maneuver.
“For those of you on the right-hand side, you probably saw the airplane kinda sorta coming at us,” the pilot stated. “Nobody told us about it, and so we continued.”
The Delta Flight 3788 pilot told the passengers that the Minot International Airport’s air traffic control tower does not have radar, which forces air traffic controllers to conduct operations “visually.” During the incident on Friday, the pilot said he saw another aircraft “was kind of coming on a converging course with us.”
“Given his speed, it was a military (aircraft). I don’t know how fast they were going, but they were a lot faster than us,” the pilot said. “I thought the safest thing to do was to turn behind it. So, sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise.”
“This is not normal at all,” the pilot added. “I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads-up because the (nearby) 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.”
