SkyWest pilots executed ‘aggressive manoeuvre’ during approach to North Dakota airport after spotting military aircraft on converging course
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a reported close call on 18 July between a SkyWest Airlines regional jet and a US Air Force Boeing B-52 bomber.
The incident occurred as the SkyWest Embraer 175 was preparing to land at Minot in North Dakota. The aircraft was operating SkyWest flight 3788 from Minneapolis under SkyWest’s partnership with Delta Air Lines.
The Embraer pilots were descending through 3,000ft and aligned with the runway when, at 19:49 local time, they broke off the approach and turned sharply north, according to flight-tracking websites. The E175 pilots circled and then landed the jet safety.
“Sorry about the aggressive manoeuvre. It caught me by surprise,” one of the Embraer’s pilots told passengers via the intercom after landing, according to a recording of the event posted on social media. “Nobody said, “Hey, there’s a B-52 in the pattern.”
“The FAA is investigating the event involving SkyWest Airlines Flight 3788 at Minot International airport on Friday, July 18,” the agency says in a statement.
The agency does not provide more information and did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
SkyWest says its aircraft “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 Embraer’s pilot also told passengers that during the approach he had noticed another aircraft to the right that was “coming on a converging course with us”.
“They were a lot faster than us,” he said. “I thought that the safest thing to do was to turn behind it.”
The event follows the 29 January midair collision between a PSA Airlines MHIRJ CRJ700 and a US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, DC. That incident killed all 64 people on the passenger jet and all three on a Black Hawk.
