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

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 5:48 PM EDT, July 22, 2025


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 performed a sharp turn, 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.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/airliner-b52-bomber-north-dakota-399a13e49fd996e2eca449e5966ad0cc

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REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143499111

[twodogsbarking]

1. I'm not a fan of flyovers. For a number of reasons.

[groundloop]

2. Minot has outside contractors staffing the control tower.

The controllers there are outside contractors, not FAA employees. The FAA started using outside contractors at some airports in 1982 under Reagan, now there are around 250 airports that use contract controllers.

It's been my opinion as a private pilot & flight instructor that the service provided by towers with contract controllers is occasionally not as good as at those staffed by FAA controllers.

In this case, assuming what the Air Force is saying is true, that controller made a royal screw up.

[Doctoris Extincti]

3. SkyWest TCAS/ADS-B-IN/ACAS INOP?

TCAS – Traffic Collision Avoidance System which passively displays known (from transponder data) traffic and, besides calling out an alert, can, in some situations, command active avoidance maneuvers on its own if ACAS equipped

These days the data is most commonly from ADS-B which is required on most commercial aircraft (and on all ac in most airspace)

ADS-B — Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. Two types "Out/IN"
ACAS — Airborne Collision Avoidance System.

There is much more alphabet soup in the avoiding aluminum on aluminum noises in the air, but SkyWest should have had SOMETHING which told them of the approaching B52

Have NO idea of equipment requirements for military aircraft (beyond knowing that they have transponders, and that they may or may not use these). Do know that a Bomber would have many more basic Mark-2 Eyeball Aircraft Detectors than your average non-military plane

Perhaps SkyWest DID make the evasive maneuver in response to a TCAS callout. However, such alerts are usually timely enough to avoid abrupt use of controls. Even the "TCAS" systems available on smartphone display systems.

Incomprehensible why Tower did not make call out. If for no other reason that that pilots like to see unusual things in the sky (especially if it might directly impact them) and often then point them out to the PIBs (People in Back).

[tonekat]

4. This seems concerning, yet it gets short shrift

I'm surprised there isn't more concern about this.