A fast-thinking commercial pilot executed an “aggressive” evasive maneuver to avoid a midair collision with a US Air Force B-52 bomber over North Dakota.
The Embraer E175 jet — en route from Minneapolis-Saint Paul to Minot International Airport in North Dakota — came perilously close to colliding with a B-52 Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base during the 90-minute flight Saturday night.
The SkyWest Airlines pilot performed an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid the incoming bomber, which crew members as well as passengers on the right side of the jet could see from their windows, Aviation A2Z reported.
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Passengers on the plane said the atmosphere on board was “weirdly calm” as the commercial jet made an unexpected series of sharp turns.
“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 said.
“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 praised the pilot for providing a highly detailed account of everything that had happened, and said she could tell by his voice he was shaken.
“He 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. It felt good that they weren’t just going to brush it off,” Green said.
The pilot told passengers over the plane’s public address system that he received instructions from air traffic controllers to change direction due to inadequate separation from a preceding aircraft on the approach path.
He explained that he had no prior warning of military air traffic — which he said was highly irregular due to Minot Air Force Base having radar capabilities — and quickly determined the safest course of action was to turn the plane behind the bomber, the outlet writes.
After the plane landed safely, relieved passengers thanked the pilot for his transparency during the frightening near-miss.
Minot Air Force Base houses the 5th Bomb Wing and 91st Missile Wing, as well as a large number of US Air Force equipment and vehicles, including 26 B-52 bombers.
