Delta regional jet narrowly avoids collision with military plane in North Dakota

The pilot of the SkyWest flight apologized to passengers after having to make an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid what he identified as a B-52 bomber near Minot.

MINOT, N.D. — A SkyWest flight had to perform a go-around maneuver after it nearly collided with a second aircraft Friday before landing in North Dakota.

The air traffic control tower had cleared the plane to approach the airport, but the pilot “performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path,” SkyWest said in a statement.

The SkyWest pilot identified the second plane as a B-52 bomber. The U.S. 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 confirmed that a B-52 assigned to Minot Air Force Base had conducted a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair on Friday evening.

Delta Flight 3788, operated by SkyWest, landed safely in Minot, North Dakota, after taking off from Minneapolis, the airline said.

SkyWest said it is investigating the incident.

The near-collision Friday comes just six months after a military helicopter hit a passenger plane near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, killing 67 people.

In video posted to social media and verified by NBC News, the plane’s pilot explains to passengers what happened in the air and apologizes for what he called an “aggressive maneuver.”

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.”

“Long story short, it was not fun,” the pilot concluded, “but I do apologize for it, and thank you for understanding.” The video then captures the passengers applauding.