Originally published at: Regional Pilot Debriefs Passengers After Avoiding 'Converging' B-52 - AVweb
Pilot made ‘aggressive maneuver’ to avoid the nuclear bomber.
Back when I started flying, at a non-radar airport this would be a day ending in Y. Now with ADS-B, TCAS, and Brite this should not be happening!
Military aircraft are not required to run with collision evidence systems turned on. That is if it is even installed.
Kudos to crew for taking action.
Minot doesn’t have radar??? That’s news to me! I Wonder what the pilot was referring to.
I hope it has ‘skin paint’ (real) radar, not just ‘Secondary Surveillance Radar’ which depends on each aircraft having transponder turned on - which the B-52 is reported as turning off at low altitude.
“Giant nuclear bomber”, “Massive Air Force plane”
The B-52 Stratofortress is a beast in its own right, but when you stack it up against commercial airliners like the Boeing 747, the differences are striking—especially in length, height, and overall mass.
B-52 versus B-747
Length 160.9 ft 231.6 ft
Wingspan 185.1 ft 211.5 ft
Height 40.7 ft 63.5 ft
Max Takeoff Weight 488,000 lbs (B-52) 875,000 lbs (B-747)
This story is a bit hard to believe. I suspect we’re not hearing the whole story.
If I had to take a guess, the B-52 was playing “stealth bomber” and had the transponder and ADS-B off. It seems hard to sneak up on someone with that stuff on.
I hate sounding like the “get off my porch” guy, but back in the day before all the tech a visual tower made sure no one hit anyone on the runway itself, but out in the pattern they were trying to keep things organized but no guaranty, one guy looking out the window a couple miles away wasn’t going to keep everyone separated.
Locally the A-10s from KMTN used to sort of fly the pattern in a very loose 4-ship at my local airport but not be up on VHF comms. I thought it was annoying and dangerous, especially when they were painted green flying above green fields and green trees.
this sound like the old adage.." piloting in 99 percent boredom and 1 percent sheer terror!"
This incident reveals a HUGE gap in airspace training. We would do well to emphasize and remind everyone that the ONLY separation service provided in class D airspace involves asphalt. Above 0" AGL, it’s see and avoid, and even then, as we saw at Midway a few months ago, see and avoid is a pilot responsibility, always. I dare say the Southwest pilots deserve much applause; The Skywest pilot should be looking at a 709 ride. In fairness though, the airspace training in the materials focuses on entry and transit requirements, and little about roles and responsibilities.
THIS!!!
If you spend enough time in the Class B, you’ll get used to the tower having radar. They do not all have it and as we saw at DCA, even in the Class B they’ll give visual clearances too.
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