The pilot of a Delta Connection regional jet operated on behalf of the airline by Skywest told passengers that he was forced to perform an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid a mid-air collision with a B-52 bomber high above the skies of North Dakota.
The terrifying incident occurred on Friday when Delta Air Lines flight DL-3788 was flying between Minneapolis and Minot, which is also home to a US Air Force Base where 26 B-52 bombers are based.
During the one-and-a-half-hour flight, the pilots of the Embraer 175 regional jet suddenly had to perform an emergency mid-air collision avoidance maneuver with a military jet that was on a convergent path with the commercial airliner.
After getting out of harm’s way, the pilot then described in detail exactly what happened over the public address system:
“For those of you on the right-hand side, you probably saw the airplane kind of sort of coming at us,” the pilot explained. “Um, nobody told us about it, and so we continued.”
As there is no radar at Minor Airport, air traffic control visually checks to ensure there is sufficient separation between aircraft on approach to landing.
In this case, the controller informed the pilots to turn right because the spacing between the Delta regional jet and a plane ahead of it was too small.
“Um, and I looked over and there was an airplane, which those of you on the right-hand side, I thought it was a small airplane. And uh, he [air traffic control] said, ‘Turn right.’ I said, ‘There’s an airplane over there.’ And he says, ‘Turn left.'”
“And that by the time we read back to clearance, looked over and saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us. And so given his speed, it was a military. 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. So, sorry about the aggressive maneuver. 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, and nobody said, ‘Hey, there’s also a B-52 in the pattern.'”
“Long story short, it was not not fun, but I do uh apologize for it and thank you for understanding. It was kind of not a not a fun day at work.”
The passengers were more than understanding of the situation, however, and ended up giving the pilot a round of applause for his detailed explanation of exactly what had happened.
Matt’s take
This level of honest communication isn’t all that common, although the pilot has won praise from many online commentators for his direct approach with passengers. Some have also speculated that the pilot was talking through what had just happened as a method to calm himself down after such a dramatic incident.
Pilot needs to be commended for his swift assessment and action. Could have ended in tragedy . What is up with the air traffic controller? Thinking he needs more training or needs to be fired. The other plane had radar but they either were distracted and continued their course or did not care about a direct hit.
Not sure how I could have made a comment already. I just read this article about planes. Check your facts before you make a comment back . Totally a lie.
The fourth and finalreport of this same info today on boardingarea.com. You need to get out there quicker next time man!