Delta Pilot Avoids Mid-Air Collision with B-52 Bomber Over North Dakota

CM - English

Minot, North Dakota – A potentially serious air incident was averted thanks to the swift action of a Delta Connection pilot, who performed an “aggressive” manoeuvre to avoid a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber. The episode occurred during flight DL3788, operated by an Embraer 175LR (registration N604CZ), en route from Minneapolis to Minot on July 19.  Video: Wikimedia | Telegram @aviact

Transcript

00:00For those of you on the right-hand side, you probably saw the airplane kind of sort of coming at us.

00:04Nobody told us about it, and so we continued on air traffic.

00:09There's no radar here, so the tower is controlled.

00:13The tower does everything visually, and so they said report about six miles from the airport.

00:20So we did that.

00:21I think he realized that the spacing wasn't going to work, and he said turn right.

00:25And I looked over, and there was an airplane, which those of you on the right-hand side,

00:31I thought it was a small airplane like the one you see at the airport right now doing touch-and-goat.

00:38And he said turn right.

00:42I said there's an airplane over there, and he says turn left.

00:44And then by the time we read back to clearance, looked over and saw the airplane that was kind of coming on an converging course with us.

00:52And so given his speed, it was the military.

00:55I don't know how fast they were going, but they were a lot faster than us.

00:57I felt it was the same as they could do to turn behind it.

00:59So sorry about the aggressive maneuver.

01:01It caught me by surprise.

01:03This is not normal at all.

01:05I don't know why they didn't give us a heads up, because the airport base does have radar,

01:10and nobody said, hey, there's also a B-52 in the pattern.

01:14You know, I mean, long story short, it was not fun, but I do apologize for it.

01:21And I thank you for understanding those kind of stuff.

01:24It's not a fun day at work.

01:26Have a nice evening, and I'm glad you're here.

Category

Transcript

Recommended