A pilot made sharp turn to avoid a B-52 bomber over North Dakota, then took to the mic to explain
Jul 21, 2025, 10:17 AM
This photo from the North Dakota Governor's Office shows a B-52 bomber from Minot Air Force Base in a flyover at the North Dakota State Fair on Friday, July 18, 2025, in Minot, N.D.. (North Dakota Governor's Office via AP)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(North Dakota Governor's Office via AP)
BISMARCK, Neb. (AP) 鈥� The pilot of a regional airliner flying over North Dakota carried out an unexpected sharp turn and later apologized to passengers, explaining that he made the move after spotting a military plane in his flight path.
The Friday incident is detailed in a video taken by a passenger and posted to social media as Delta Flight 3788 approached the Minot International Airport for landing. In the video, the SkyWest pilot can be heard over the plane’s intercom system explaining that he made the sharp left turn after spotting a B-52 bomber in his flight path.
鈥淪orry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise,鈥� the pilot can be heard saying on the video. “This is not normal at all. I don鈥檛 know why they didn鈥檛 give us a heads up.鈥�
SkyWest, a regional carrier for Delta and other large airlines, said the flight had departed from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and landed safely in Minot after performing a 鈥済o-around鈥� maneuver when another aircraft became visible in the SkyWest plane’s flight path. Minot is 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Bismarck, North Dakota鈥檚 capital city, and about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Canadian border.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it’s investigating the incident. SkyWest said it is also investigating.
In the video, the pilot noted that Minot’s small airport does not operate radar and directs flights visually. When the airport tower instructed the SkyWest flight to make a right turn upon approach, the pilot said he looked in that direction and saw the bomber in his flight path. He informed the tower and made a hard left instead, he said.
鈥淚 don’t know how fast they were going, but they were a lot faster than us,鈥� the pilot said of the bomber.
The North Dakota incident comes nearly six months after a midair collision between an Army helicopter and a jetliner over Washington, D.C., that killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft.
Minot Air Force Base is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Minot, North Dakota鈥檚 fourth-largest city. The base is home to 26 B-52 bombers, intercontinental ballistic missile operations and more than 5,400 military personnel.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed Monday that a B-52 bomber assigned to the base conducted a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair on Friday and that the Air Force is 鈥渓ooking into鈥� the report of a bomber and a commercial airliner operating in the same airspace around the Minot airport.
The pilot’s frustration is evident in the video.
鈥淭he Air Force base does have radar, and nobody said, 鈥楬ey, there鈥檚 a B-52 in the pattern,’鈥� the pilot told passengers.
鈥斺赌�-
Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
