this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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A pilot flying a Delta Air Lines regional jet on Friday apologized to his passengers after making a hard turn to avoid colliding with a US Air Force B-52 bomber, audio from the incident shows.

The incident occurred on SkyWest Flight 3788, which was operating as a Delta Connection flight, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Minot, North Dakota, SkyWest said in a statement.

The flight landed safely in Minot “after being cleared for approach by the tower but performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path,” the statement read.

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[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just saw a YouTube vid on this with the pilot apologising and the comments were blaming "DEI". i felt so tempted to ask them what part of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion they have a problem with

[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

YouTube comments are full of the most braindead people on Earth

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

There's a reason "don't read the comments" is a cliche

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 94 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Are we having air traffic control fall out? Having a close call and then someone in your flight path again isn't great.

[–] jonne 73 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I mean, the ATC pipeline has already had issues for some decades when it comes to adding new recruits, and then DOGE came in and decided to offer buyouts and fire random employees on top of that. It's only a matter of time before you get more accidents like the one in DC.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Also you will start seeing folks leave from burnout and overwork sooner or later. Because that's the corpo way, fucked over your workforce and need to desperately high more people? Nope just work the current ones to the bone until the whole situation inevitably spirals into an irreparable mess.

The rail companies are gonna be making bank on parcel and letter delivery when the planes get permanently grounded because nobody wants to operate a business with no ATC. Also wonder how long till we start seeing state level run ATC?

[–] jonne 19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Nah, it's always the prelude to privatisation. Someone will start up an ATC company and just take over the whole thing.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Doesn't mean the ATC won't still collapse, knowing how this shit tends to go they'd probably gut the existing systems so badly that most companies would pull out of the industry at least in the US. Boeing's fuck ups have driven down air travel relatively recently, it's entirely possible airports would lose insurance and be shut down by the cities if things got bad enough one or two jets smashing into a suburb would be enough.

Remember these folks are evil, greedy, and stupid. Not saying they can't capture objectives but holding them? That's another question.

[–] jonne 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh of course, privatisation of infrastructure always ends up worse and more expensive. Look at the US railroads.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

At least with rails the absolute worst that can happen is a chemical spill, with planes and jets it could be as bad as a chemical airburst not even factoring in debris fields and other secondary shit. Frankly speaking I don't think there is anyways to have a minimum viable ATC with a corporation at least not a publicly traded one since they'd probably sell it to some publicly traded company that'll be bunk in five years.

[–] jonne 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I mean, you can have worse than chemical spills with trains. You can have entire towns blowing up. But yeah, you'll probably get even worse with ATC.

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[–] 800XL@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

And holy shit will it be worse.

[–] thedruid@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No they won't. Remember, Regan set the present that he can fire them. And get new ones.

*fire them and then fail to find enough new ones for decades

[–] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 day ago

It's that second part that's tricky.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

wonder how long till we start seeing state level run ATC

They'll find a way to move it to the private sector before that.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

I am not surprised to see they've already been trying. I am glad to see there is already organized opposition to the privatization of the FAA. https://nbaa.org/advocacy/legislative-and-regulatory-issues/faa-reauthorization-and-modernization/truth-atc-privatization/

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

It's cool bruh we'll just have xAI run the show using their Nazi bot who will prioritize flights based on how Jewish their passengers' last names sound

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 41 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

The tower involved was not a Federal Aviation Administration tower

Pardon? Who is operating a tower in North Dakota apart from the FAA? What is going on here? Why is there a tower in our United States that the FAA does not control?

“Long story short, it was not fun, I do apologize for it and thank you for understanding,”

lol, understatement

[–] brandon@piefed.social 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If I had to venture a guess I'd say it was probably the tower at nearby Minot AFB. Perhaps the commercial flight's approach took them over the bases' airspace or something.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm having trouble coming to grips with us having multiple air controllers. I thought everything was FAA and the military had to coordinate with them.

Good thing I don't fly an airplane, I suppose.

[–] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They use the same ATC systems and protocols, so handoffs between airspace should be the same whether it's a military or FAA tower.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So there's a whole other ATC controlled by the military? I honestly have no knowledge of this and am surprised.

[–] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Im just hearing about this too, but that doesnt surprise me at all. Government black ops in mind, you can't have civilian ATC personnel having classified information on the location of military aircraft nor their capabilities. Of course the military is going to have their own branch responsible for handling sesnitive info.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Nah, I always thought that military shit flew through FAA ATC and they just handed it off to the next. I don't know what to think now.

[–] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 2 days ago (9 children)

Kind of. It is more the same system, just some towers are operated by the military and some by the FAA. Each has their own airspace they are responsible for, but civilian aircraft can fly through airspace managed by military ATC and vice versa.

I'm not sure why it is like that nowadays. I guess in the beginning of ATC in the US it made sense for air bases to control the nearby airspace, and it probably just went from there, with maybe consolidation of towers as a cost-cutting measure along the way.

Caveat: it's been years since I've had to know any of this, so this might be outdated or misremembered.

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[–] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My guess is the Air Force. Iirc, the Army and Navy also operate their own ATC. I didn't know they did approach control for civilian aircraft, but that seems to be the case.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago

WTF? I thought all air traffic was FAA, guess I was wrong.

[–] fredrik@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago
[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago

Kudos to the pilot for handling the situation admirably

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago
[–] ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Should it be the other way around?

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In aircraft and boats, the more maneuverable craft has the responsibility to evade. Since this flight was going to a small airport in North Dakota, I'm guessing it's a small commuter plane that's much smaller than a B-52.

[–] foenix@lemmy.radio 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Pilot here: while that is generally true, for aviation the rule is that aircraft types that are in the same category have to give way to landing aircraft. Ie, a hot air balloon doesn't need to give way to a landing fixed wing but a fixed wing and fixed wing do need to give way to the landing aircraft.

The Delta pilot should be commended and the B52 should have been more aware of their situation.

In addition, ATC clearance generally means you have right of way especially on a landing approach.

Thank you for sharing.

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