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 said, shedding light on the nation's latest air safety scare.
A SkyWest pilot , startling passengers, to avoid colliding with the B-52 bomber he said 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 team, the Air Force said in a statement Monday.
As the bomber headed to the fairgrounds shortly before 8 p.m., the base's air traffic control advised its crew to contact the Minot airport's air traffic control.
“The B-52 crew contacted Minot International Airport tower and the tower provided instructions to continue 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) westbound after the flyover,” the Air Force said. “The tower did not advise of the inbound commercial aircraft.”
Abrupt turn startled passengers
Video taken by a passenger on Delta Flight 3788 — 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 investigating. The airliner had 76 passengers and four crew members onboard, SkyWest Airlines said.
Aviation safety a concern after recent crashes and close calls
It's just the latest flight scare in recent months. In February, a Southwest Airlines flight about to land at Chicago’s Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky crossing the runway. That followed the of a passenger jet and an Army helicopter over Washington, D.C., in January that killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft. Those and have raised questions about the FAA's oversight.
And this incident 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 said 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 265 airport towers nationwide that are operated by companies, but the roughly 1,400 air traffic controllers at these smaller airports meet the same qualification and training requirements as FAA controllers at larger airports, the agency said.
The city of Minot, which owns and operates the airport, didn’t comment Tuesday on the Air Force’s statement, but said 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 service for the Minot airport, were not immediately returned.
The contract tower program has been in place since 1982, and it has been repeatedly praised in reports from the Transportation Department's Inspector General.
Many small airports lack radar and federal controllers
Some 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 , mainly because most small airports don’t have passenger air service. 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 18 and 24 flights a day.
Former NTSB and FAA crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said it is common for small airports like Minot to operate without their own radars. He said 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 simply won't be cleared to land if the weather is too bad.
Guzzetti who oversaw one of the Inspector General reports, said the contract tower program has been hugely successful and improves safety at small airports because if they didn't have a contract tower, small airports would be uncontrolled. And he said 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 program. It’s been a stalwart,” Guzzetti said.
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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writer Margery A. Beck contributed from Omaha.
