The pilot said he originally thought the other aircraft might have been a small plane. The air traffic control tower had told the pilot to turn right and then turn left. By then, the pilot realized the other aircraft was a military B-52 bomber “on a converging course with us.”
At that point, the pilot decided the safest thing to do was to turn behind it.
“Sorry about the aggressive maneuver,” the pilot told passengers. “It is not normal at all. I don’t know why they didn’t tell us about it. It was not fun. I do apologize for it. Thank you for understanding. Not a fun day at work.”
The video ends with passengers applauding.
The pilot said the tower in Minot does not have radar and controllers rely on visuals to direct aircraft. A nearby Air Force base does have radar, which prompted the pilot to ask why nobody said, “Hey, there’s also a B-52 in the pattern.”
The Air Force confirmed a B-52 aircraft assigned to the Minot Air Force base conducted a flyover at the North Dakota State Fair on Friday night.