- Oct 17, 2011
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The SkyWest pilot identified the second plane as a B-52 bomber. The Air Force said Sunday evening that it was "looking into" reports of a military aircraft “operating in the same airspace” as a commercial airplane. It added that a B-52 assigned to Minot Air Force Base had conducted a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair on Friday evening.
The pilot says that the ATC tower instructed him to turn right but that when he looked over, he saw a B-52 bomber. He says that he was then instructed to turn left but that at that point, he looked over and "saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us."
The second aircraft was moving faster than the SkyWest plane, the pilot says, so he made the decision to turn behind it.
"So, sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise," the pilot says in the video. "This is not normal at all. I don't know why they didn't give us a heads up."
In the video, the pilot also mentions that the tower that serves Minot International Airport does not have a radar and that controllers rely only on visuals to make calls.
The Air Force Base nearby does have radar, the pilot says, which causes him to wonder why nobody said, "Hey, there's also a B-52 in the pattern."
"There are many small airports across the country that have commercial service that don't have radar. Instead, they'll have some sort of coordinating communication with another radar facility several miles away, perhaps with a military base," [aviation guy] Guzzetti said.
The key question, Guzzetti said, is how much coordination there was between the Air Force base and the airport.
The pilot says that the ATC tower instructed him to turn right but that when he looked over, he saw a B-52 bomber. He says that he was then instructed to turn left but that at that point, he looked over and "saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us."
The second aircraft was moving faster than the SkyWest plane, the pilot says, so he made the decision to turn behind it.
"So, sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise," the pilot says in the video. "This is not normal at all. I don't know why they didn't give us a heads up."
In the video, the pilot also mentions that the tower that serves Minot International Airport does not have a radar and that controllers rely only on visuals to make calls.
The Air Force Base nearby does have radar, the pilot says, which causes him to wonder why nobody said, "Hey, there's also a B-52 in the pattern."
"There are many small airports across the country that have commercial service that don't have radar. Instead, they'll have some sort of coordinating communication with another radar facility several miles away, perhaps with a military base," [aviation guy] Guzzetti said.
The key question, Guzzetti said, is how much coordination there was between the Air Force base and the airport.
