- A Delta pilot said he avoided a crash with a B-52 bomber after executing an “aggressive maneuver.”
- The Delta flight, which was operated by SkyWest, was headed toward North Dakota.
- “It caught me by surprise, this is not normal at all,” the pilot apologized to passengers.
A Delta regional flight traveling from Minneapolis to Minot avoided a mid-air collision with a US Air Force B-52 bomber on Friday.
The flight, which was operated by SkyWest Airlines as Delta Connection, was headed toward North Dakota when it encountered a B-52 bomber from Minot Air Force Base. It is unclear how close the two aircraft were to each other when the incident happened.
The pilot of SkyWest flight 3788 told passengers that the craft had managed to evade the B-52 after executing an “aggressive maneuver.”
“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 said while apologizing to passengers, per a recording of the conversation.
“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,” the pilot continued, adding that it was “not a fun day at work.”
When approached for comment, Delta Air Lines referred Business Insider to SkyWest Airlines.
SkyWest said the flight was originally “cleared for approach by the tower but performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight.” It added that the plane had landed safely in Minot and they are “investigating the incident.”
In January, an American Airlines flight collided with a UH-60 Black Hawk as it neared the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The collision killed all 67 people abroad the two aircraft.
Representatives for the US Air Force Central Command, Minot Air Force Base, and the Federal Aviation Administration did not respond to requests for comment from BI.
