MINOT, N.D. — People waiting at the Minot airport to pick up passengers watched in horror as an Air Force B-52 bomber passed under the path of an incoming Delta flight that had been cleared to land. The Delta pilot maneuvered sharply to avoid a collision. The lumbering B-52, weighing 183,000 pounds with eight engines, dwarfed the 76-passenger Delta Embraer 185. The Delta plane was on a 96-minute flight from Minneapolis and had been scheduled to land at 8:08 p.m. Touchdown was delayed a bit as the pilot circled the airport several times with an eye peeled for perhaps other B52s in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, the low-flying B-52 continued to the Minot Air Force Base 13 miles north of town. The Delta flight was operated by SkyWest Airlines under the Delta banner.
Wingspans: B-52 at 185 feet, Embraer 175 at 85 feet.
VerbatIm
Monica Green, a Delta passenger, in an interview with the Minot Daily News: “Honestly, everyone was weirdly calm. I felt like I was gaslighting myself, like maybe I was being crazy, because no one else was reacting,” Green said. “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.’ 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.”
Verbatim
Delta news statement: “SkyWest flight 3788, operating as Delta Connection from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Minot, North Dakota, 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.” Neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor the U.S. Air Force responded to news media queries.
FAA downsizing
The Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for U.S. air traffic control. Staffs have been short-handed for years. Staffing worsened significantly in March when President Trump fired 400 FAA staff members to save money. Trump also encouraged other FAA employees into early retirement while continuing further cuts. When fully staffed, the FAA as 14,000 air traffic controllers.