A Delta passenger jet was forced to make an abrupt, “aggressive maneuver” to avoid a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber over North Dakota, raising renewed concerns about civilian and military aircraft coordination.
Delta Flight 3788, operated by SkyWest, was approaching Minot after taking off from Minneapolis when the pilot suddenly veered away from another fast-moving aircraft approaching from the right.
“I don’t know how fast they were going, but they were a lot faster than us,” the pilot told passengers. “I felt it was the safest thing to do to turn behind it… Sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise. This is not normal at all.”
The incident occurred on Friday and is now under investigation by SkyWest. According to the airline, the flight had been cleared to approach Minot but performed a go-around after another aircraft appeared in its path.
The U.S. Air Force confirmed that a B-52 bomber was flying over the North Dakota State Fair in Minot at the time but did not offer further details about the near miss.
Minot, located near the Canadian border, hosts both a commercial airport and an Air Force base. The city’s air traffic control tower does not use radar — a typical condition at smaller U.S. airfields — which may have contributed to the incident.
In a video shared on Instagram and verified by Storyful, the SkyWest pilot explained, “Nobody told us” about the other aircraft. He recounted the confusion with the tower’s instructions: “He said, ‘Turn right.’ I said there’s an airplane over there. And he says, ‘Turn left.'”
The close call comes less than six months after a deadly collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Washington, D.C., that killed all 67 people aboard. That tragedy led federal officials and lawmakers to begin reviewing how military and civilian aircraft share controlled airspace — a review likely to gain urgency following this latest incident.Tools
