On July 18, 2025, a disaster was narrowly averted over Minot, North Dakota. A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber, flying back from a ceremonial flyover of the North Dakota State Fair, weathered close calls with two other aircraft—a commercial airliner and a private aircraft. The close calls put into focus how military and civilian traffic share common airspace, particularly around smaller airports with fewer staff and equipment.
The series of events, as it unfolded, was that the B-52 was landing at Minot International Airport. SkyWest Airlines Flight 3788, a Delta Connection flight from Minneapolis with 76 aboard, was coming in as well. According to reports by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the bomber was on its cleared course under radar control, but neither aircraft was ever notified by the control tower of the impending collision.
The close call lasted mere seconds. The SkyWest pilot had a fleeting moment to look and observe the huge bomber to his right. With little more than a second to respond, he yanked the aircraft to the left, rattling passengers in their seats and taking the plane into a swooping evasive move.
Passenger Monica Green subsequently remembered the unsettling silence as the cabin deviated from course, and passengers gazed at the ground rather than the horizon. The visibly shaken pilot apologized upon arrival, stating no warning had been given from the tower.
The near-miss was not over yet. Within a span of less than one minute, the B-52 just narrowly escaped a privately owned Piper PA-28 aircraft slewing close to the airport. NTSB reports indicate the bomber was at about three-quarters of a mile altitude above the smaller aircraft, yet again undetected by the control tower.
Probes show a tower under extreme stress. Only one controller was working, who manually followed all traffic in a radar-free facility. Adding to the complexity, the controller had to get authorization from a regional FAA radar center before he could clear flight movement, with minimal room for instant judgment. Transcripts are said to portray uncertainty with call signs, the pace of instructions being slow, and tensions increasing.
Veteran air safety analyst Jeff Guzzetti pinpointed the primary breakdown: nobody told Delta’s aircraft and Piper’s aircraft to change course in time, which put the three planes in the same airspace—a deadly intersection that could have had catastrophic consequences.
Fortunately, all three planes landed safely without injury. NTSB observes that the B-52 was on its flight plan and was technically separated visually. The Air Force is fully cooperating, and the FAA has initiated a formal investigation, as Minot’s tower is not staffed by FAA employees but rather private contractors.
The crash has fueled controversy over air safety. With skies more crowded than ever before, military aircraft take off and land alongside commercial airliners and private planes, and small airports with no radar defense are even more at risk.
The Minot near-miss is now a sobering reminder of how rapidly the situation can deteriorate when systems are so dependent on the alertness of human observation alone.
Even though no one was hurt, the brush with disaster is a sobering reminder of what lies in the air. For pilots, air traffic controllers, and the airlines, the lesson is clear: coordination must be tighter, equipment must be more dependable, and vigilance must be incessant. In the skies, a single wrong move means disaster.