A SkyWest flight had to perform a go-around direction after it nearly collided with a military aircraft before landing in North Dakota.
In an official statement, the airlines noted that the air traffic control tower had cleared the plane to approach the airport; however, the pilot "performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path.”
Delta Flight 3788, operated by SkyWest, landed safely in Minot, North Dakota, after it flew in from Minneapolis, with the company currently investigating the incident.
The near-collision on Friday, July 18, came just six months after a military helicopter collided with a passenger plane near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, claiming 67 people.
Unlike the tower that serves Minot International Airport, the Air Force Base nearby does have radar, the pilot revealed, which caused him to wonder why nobody said, "Hey, there's also a B-52 in the pattern."
NBC aviation analyst Jeff Guzzetti admitted that the lack of radar capability at smaller airports is a common practice in the US.
"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," Guzzetti noted.
Since the Minot airport is relatively smaller, the federal government allows it to be a "contract tower," Guzzetti said.
That means the air traffic controllers are not federal employees but are contractors hired by the FAA who are usually retired controllers.
The key question, Guzzetti said, in such cases, and to avoid future incidents, is to note how much coordination there was between the Air Force base and the airport.
