SkyWest Airlines said on Sunday that one of its passenger jets had aborted a landing in North Dakota last week because another aircraft was in its flight path.
After the SkyWest plane landed safely on Friday, the pilot told passengers that he had made an “aggressive maneuver” to avoid hitting a military aircraft, according to a recording of his remarks that a passenger made and shared with The New York Times.
The passenger, Monica Green, said in an interview that she was sitting near the front of SkyWest Flight 3788 from Minneapolis to Minot, N.D., when she felt the plane swerve “harshly” to the right near the end of the trip. The turn was so sharp that she found herself looking out the window, not at the sky, but at the cornfields below, she said.
“My plane keeps circling and not landing,” she texted her husband at the time, according to a screenshot of their conversation. After the plane eventually landed at Minot International Airport, she said, the pilot came into the cabin and told the passengers that he had turned to avoid hitting a military aircraft. She said the mood felt eerily calm.
“Sorry about the aggressive maneuver,” a man she said was the pilot can be heard saying in the video recording she made from her seat. “It caught me by surprise. This is not normal at all.”
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