Air traffic controllers didn’t warn a B-52 bomber crew about a nearby airliner, the Air Force says

BISMARCK N D AP Air traffic controllers at a small North Dakota airport didn t inform an Air Force bomber s crew that a commercial airliner was flying in the same area the military declared shedding light on the nation s latest air safety scare A SkyWest pilot performed a sharp turn startling passengers to avoid colliding with the B- bomber he stated was in his flight path as he prepared to land Friday at Minot International Airport The bomber had been conducting a flyover at the North Dakota State Fair in Minot approved in consultation with the Federal Aviation Administration the Minot International Airport air traffic control and the Minot Air Force Base s air traffic control company the Air Force reported in a declaration Monday As the bomber headed to the fairgrounds shortly before p m the base s air traffic control advised its crew to contact the Minot airport s air traffic control The B- crew contacted Minot International Airport tower and the tower provided instructions to continue miles kilometers westbound after the flyover the Air Force declared The tower did not advise of the inbound commercial aircraft Abrupt turn startled passengers Video taken by a customer on Delta Flight which departed from Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport captured audio of the SkyWest pilot explaining over the plane s intercom that he made the hard bank after spotting the bomber in the flight path that Minot air traffic control had directed him to take for landing Sorry about the aggressive maneuver It caught me by surprise the pilot can be heard saying on the video posted on social media This is not normal at all I don t know why they didn t give us a heads up The FAA Air Force and SkyWest are assessing The airliner had passengers and four crew members onboard SkyWest Airlines disclosed Aviation safety a concern after fresh crashes and close calls It s just the latest flight scare in new months In February a Southwest Airlines flight about to land at Chicago s Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft spanning the runway That followed the tragic midair collision of a tourist jet and an Army helicopter over Washington D C in January that killed all people aboard the two aircraft Those and other latest incidents have raised questions about the FAA s oversight And this situation renews questions raised after the Washington D C crash about how well the military communicates with civilian air traffic controllers when their flights are sharing the same airspace Minot tower run by a private company The FAA explained Monday that a private company services the Minot air traffic control tower and that the controllers there aren t FAA employees It is one of airport towers nationwide that are operated by companies but the roughly air traffic controllers at these smaller airports meet the same qualification and training requirements as FAA controllers at larger airports the agency noted The city of Minot which owns and operates the airport didn t comment Tuesday on the Air Force s declaration but declared the airport is relying on the different agencies to conduct their investigations Phone and email messages left Tuesday for Midwest Air Traffic Control Inc which provides air traffic control function for the Minot airport were not without delay returned The contract tower activity has been in place since and it has been repeatedly praised in reports from the Transportation Department s Inspector General Multiple small airports lack radar and federal controllers A few small airports like Minot s also don t have their own radar systems on site In fact the vast majority of the nation s airports don t even have towers mainly because largest part small airports don t have visitor air utility But regional FAA radar facilities do oversee traffic all across the country and an approach control radar center in Minneapolis helps direct planes in and out of Minot before controllers at the airport take over once they see the planes The Minot airport typically handles between and flights a day Former NTSB and FAA crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti explained it is common for small airports like Minot to operate without their own radars He mentioned radars are cost-prohibitive to install at every airport and it generally works fine for airport controllers to direct planes into landing visually If the weather is bad a regional FAA radar facility may be able to help but ultimately planes exclusively won t be cleared to land if the weather is too bad Guzzetti who oversaw one of the Inspector General reports disclosed the contract tower project has been hugely flourishing and improves safety at small airports because if they didn t have a contract tower small airports would be uncontrolled And he noted the safety record of contract towers is similar if not better than federal towers We still have to see what happened here But even if it was a controller screwup I don t think that should indict or raise questions about the contract tower scheme It s been a stalwart Guzzetti declared