Delta Plane Makes “Aggressive Maneuver” To Avoid B-52 Bomber

Delta Plane Makes “Aggressive Maneuver” To Avoid B-52 Bomber

26

A regional jet flying on behalf of Delta Air Lines had to make a last minute maneuver to avoid a B-52 bomber, and the level of detail in which the pilot communicated this to passengers is quite something (thanks to PYOK for flagging this)…

Delta plane has close call with military jet in North Dakota

This incident happened on Thursday, July 18, 2025 (I know the video says July 19, but that’s not accurate, as the flight didn’t operate that day), and it involves Delta flight DL3788, operating from Minneapolis, Minnesota (MSP), to Minot, North Dakota (MOT). The 449-mile flight was flown by an Embraer E175 operating under the Delta Connection brand, which is Delta’s regional subsidiary.

The roughly 90-minute flight was mostly routine, and if you look at flight tracking software, you’ll simply see that the plane had a missed approach at Minot, circled back around, and came in for a successful landing. That’s hardly out of the ordinary, at least on the surface.

DL3788 performed a go around

However, the actual details of the incident are a bit more dramatic. A TikTok user posted a video online with the audio of the pilot explaining to passengers what happened, and it has now been viewed millions of times. The pilot’s explanation is quite something. Note that the audio only starts part way into the explanation:

“For those of you on the right hand side, you probably saw the airplane kind of sort of coming at us. Nobody told us about it, so we continued and there’s no radar here, so the tower does everything visually. So they sent us about six miles from the airport, so we did that, I think he realized that the spacing wasn’t going to work, and I looked over and there was an airplane that was supposed to be on the right hand side.”

“I thought it was a small airplane, like the ones you see at the airport right now doing touch and goes. And he said turn right, and I said there’s an airplane over there, and he says turn left, and by the time we read back the clearance, we looked over and saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a convergent course with us.”

“So given his speed, it was a military aircraft, it was the safest thing to do to turn behind it. So sorry for the aggressive maneuver, it caught me by surprise, and it’s not normal at all. I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads up. Because the airport base does have radar, and nobody said ‘hey, there’s also a B-52 in the pattern.’ Long story short, it wasn’t fun, and I do apologize for it, and I thank you for your understanding. Not a fun day at work.”

You can listen to the audio for yourself below.

@azamora616

#plane#nearmiss#flight3788 @delta *sent to me by my sister . She was on the flight and made this recording *UPDATE* this was flight 3788 on 07/18/2025

♬ original sound – Andrea

It’s hard to know exactly how close of a call it was between the Delta regional jet and the B-52. For those curious why there was B-52 near a small regional airport in North Dakota, it’s because Minot Air Force Base is also in this area, and there are dozens of B-52s stationed there.

The pilot went into quite a bit of detail on what happened!

It’s exceedingly rare to see a pilot go into this level of detail with passengers about an incident. I’m conflicted about this.

On the one hand, a major point of frustration that air travelers have is the lack of transparency when things go wrong, ranging from weather delays, to maintenance issues. This guy deserves huge credit for communicating transparently, and it seems that passengers greatly appreciate that — you can hear everyone clapping at the end, and the comments on TikTok are basically universally praising the pilot.

On the other hand, he could’ve just as easily said “sorry about that maneuver, we had to perform a go around due to some traffic, we’ll be landing again soon,” and no one would’ve likely thought more of it. It almost seems like he’s sharing this level of detail over the PA in order to process his own feelings about the incident.

I suspect we’ll soon see this story making national headlines, since the mainstream media loves to pick up on airline stories, and a Delta jet having to perform an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid a B-52 is quite a story, especially given the general concerns about military traffic vs. commercial traffic (like the fatal January 2025 accident, where a Black Hawk helicopter crashed into an American Eagle jet).

And heck, maybe bringing attention to these kinds of incidents is actually ultimately good for the public, since hopefully it increasingly forces military aircraft to not put civilian aircraft in danger.

Bottom line

A Delta regional jet was forced to perform a last minute “aggressive maneuver” to avoid a B-52 bomber, while landing in North Dakota. Purely from looking at flight tracking, you wouldn’t think much of the aborted landing, though the pilot gave quite the detailed account of what happened.

Kudos to the pilot, I don’t think you can be much more transparent about an incident than he was. At the same time, while I’m sure people were grateful for the explanation, I’m not sure it put many people at ease…

What do you make of this incident, and the pilot’s communication?

Conversations (26)
The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.
Type your response here.

If you'd like to participate in the discussion, please adhere to our commenting guidelines. Anyone can comment, and your email address will not be published. Register to save your unique username and earn special OMAAT reputation perks!

  1. Ehud Gavron Guest

    MSP is at UTC-0500.

    So it WAS on the 19th.

    Next time you want to call someone out for getting the date wrong, learn about UTC, GMT, UT1, DST, etc. Otherwise you're just wrong. That's ok. But worse, you're lying and misleading all the readers. That's not ok.

    Get an edu-ma-cation.

    1. Eskimo Guest

      Really?

      It WAS 19th (UTC) AND also 18th (UTC-0500)

      You're probably the only idiot who lives without a timezone. In addition to have no idea of converting anything.

      Or you're another British alter ego?

      And the only people who actually uses UT1 are astronomers.
      Since obviously you're to dumb to be a real astronomer, by any chance someone cheated on you recently at a Coldplay concert?

  2. Lighting1 Guest

    TCAS, radar and all the EFB fancy stuff exists to avoid collision. It must have worked, they didn’t collide. I had a military jet decide to go vertical (13000 fpm showed on tcas) after takeoff just like Maverick did when flying over Kaneohe. An RA manuver kept us apart. The pax noticed,but an honest P A kept eveyone calm.

  3. T'Om Guest

    I don't usually disagree with you, Ben, but communication with the passengers front the front seats is ridiculously rare and my major flight pet peeve...other than when they do communicate...about delays, when you hear "10 minutes" it is the start of a pilot lie session. I have had a pilot say we will be delayed 10 minutes and the AA ap five minutes ago beeped a 30 minute delay. I think passengers have every right to hear from the flight deck, and often.

  4. JHS Guest

    Why write a story without anywhere near all the facts? Too long an article with too little information. How about sourcing the ATC recording of the incident? Non-radar approach control / tower at MOT? Not likely. And the comments. "F*** the military"? Is that how you really feel? And if so, why? And, why do the regular contributors have to comment on everything? I'm new to this site, and in a very short time I've learned who to read and who to ignore.

  5. Jb Guest

    You could have said the same thing with 50% less words.

    I don't understand why all these Internet articles are so long worded

  6. Eskimo Guest

    Ahh, the B-52!!!!!
    Another one of Boeing's legendary killing machine.

    1. polarbear Diamond

      Do bombers have TCAS? Transport/tankers yes - but b52?

    2. CanadaDave Guest

      Yes they do. All aircraft operating in the US do.

    3. AJO Diamond

      Probably not. TCAS is mandatory only for civil aircraft over a certain gross weight.

  7. wings Guest

    So the regional pilot was surprised that a B-52 was flying in the vicinity of a B-52 base? He needs to update his situational awareness. You always need to be aware of other airports or bases in the vicinity of the airport you are going into.

    1. jkjkjk Guest

      wow. you clearly know nothing about flying....

      There are 14000 airports in America. Should every pilot know what kind of airplane is in the vicinity of all time or airport they're flying in and nearby airplanes? How about international flying? Should American pilots be aware of where Sukhoi or Rafaele planes are in India for example?

      From the story, B52 is in collision course not just in vicinity. If they're merely in vicinity, there is no need for any maneuver...

  8. Maryland Guest

    From the pilot's account this was a close call and passengers deserve to know what happened so it will not be repeated. Putting people at ease is fixing the problem.

    1. AeroB13a Diamond

      Not having access to sufficient information to make an informed assessment of the incident is not ideal, therefore, one has to ask what roll did ATC operators take in this scenario …. can anyone help please?

    2. CapitalMike Member

      Why would letting the passengers know contribute to an incident like this not being repeated?
      „Putting people at ease“ may indeed help fixing the problem but what the pilot did was worry passengers retrospectively.
      Sharing this level of detail was hardly putting anybody at ease.
      What Lucky suggested about a more neutral message to the passengers regarding traffic and a new approach would have done the trick.
      Obviously the incident would...

      Why would letting the passengers know contribute to an incident like this not being repeated?
      „Putting people at ease“ may indeed help fixing the problem but what the pilot did was worry passengers retrospectively.
      Sharing this level of detail was hardly putting anybody at ease.
      What Lucky suggested about a more neutral message to the passengers regarding traffic and a new approach would have done the trick.
      Obviously the incident would then need to be reported through official channels once on the ground again regardless.

    3. Maryland Guest

      Cap mike, I find honesty and transparency makes people comfortable. ( the passengers did applaud ). And calling attention to something that can be improved is never a bad idea.

  9. Robert Fahr Guest

    Another incident on the watch the Secretary Real World

    1. AndyS Guest

      He's having to fix the mess left by buttgig

  10. Tim Dunn Diamond

    It may have been a Delta flight but it was not a Delta jet

    1. Tim Dunn Diamond

      also, Endeavor does not operate any E175s in revenue service; they have tested them and are expected to take them as replacements from one of the other DL connection carriers at some point.

      Other sources including flightaware say the flight was operated by SkyWest

    2. GH Guest

      The B52 was doing a low altitude flyover of the ND State fair grandstand during a military award ceremony, which would put it cutting across airport arrival flight traffic..someone did not think that through very well

    3. AeroB13a Diamond

      …. :-)
      Enough said …. it wasn’t “PREMIUM” then! ….

  11. AeroB13a Diamond

    Come now Tim …. surely even you know that there is very little “PREMIUM” in a DL flight …. :-)

  12. Dim Tunn Guest

    B-52 pilot just wanted to see what a PREMIUM experience looks like for passengers, obviously

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Maryland Guest

From the pilot's account this was a close call and passengers deserve to know what happened so it will not be repeated. Putting people at ease is fixing the problem.

3
uldguy Diamond

No mention of a TCAS alert?

2
Robert Fahr Guest

Another incident on the watch the Secretary Real World

2
Meet Ben Schlappig, OMAAT Founder
5,527,136 Miles Traveled

39,914,500 Words Written

42,354 Posts Published