While the aircraft was about to land, the pilot suddenly changed direction, causing passenger stupor.
“I am sorry for this aggressive maneuver,” said the passenger driver, according to comments heard on a video filmed by a passenger and published on Instagram.
“+Turn right+, said the control tower. I said+there is an airplane there+and (the tower) told me+turn left+,” he said.
“Taken by surprise”
“Given his speed, it was a military plane, I don’t know how much he was going, but he was much faster (than we). I thought that the safest thing was to make a gas presentation,” said the pilot, saying he was “caught by surprise” because “no one had warned” of the presence of the military plane.
According to Skywest details to AFP, his concerned airliner is an E-175 twinner from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, which transported 76 passengers and 4 crew members, including two pilots.
The FAA pointed out on Monday afternoon that the Minot control tower was managed by a private company. “These controllers are not FAA employees,” she said.
The administration of the American president Donald Trump announced in early May a “complete modernization” of the American air traffic control system which suffers from a shortage of controllers in the towers managed by the FAA.
The Air Force told AFP that the military aircraft involved was a B-52 bomber who was an overview for a state fair taking place in Minot, where a civil airport and a military base are located.
The US Air Force added “being currently examining” the facts.
The Flightaware flight tracking website shows the trajectory of the civil apparatus which made a large loop, after a sudden recovery of altitude in extremis, then landed.
Its competitor Flighttradar shows the evolution in several aerial loops, near Minot, of the B-52 Stratotortress, a long-range long-range bomber making 56 meters of wingspan and which can fly up to 15,000 meters above sea level.
In January, a collision in flight between a commercial plane approaching at Ronald-Reagan airport, close to the center of Washington, and a military helicopter left 67 dead.
