The pilot of a JetBlue flight reported Friday that he nearly collided with a U.S. military aircraft over the Caribbean after an Air Force tanker crossed in front of the commercial jet without transmitting its position, according to air traffic control radio communications.
“They have their transponder turned off, it’s absurd,” the JetBlue pilot told an air traffic controller, after identifying the type of aircraft he had encountered. “We almost had a mid-air collision here.”
The radio broadcasts detail the experience of JetBlue Flight 1112, which was heading to New York after departing Curaçao, a small island in the southern Caribbean, about 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela. Twenty minutes after takeoff, the aircraft suddenly leveled off during climb, according to flight tracking data. Over the radio, the pilot stated that he was forced to interrupt his ascent to cruising altitude to avoid colliding with the tanker.
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It is not clear whether the pilot saw the military aircraft with the naked eye or whether he was alerted by a sensor on the plane. He told the air traffic controller in Curaçao that the tanker was only 2 or 3 miles away — less than 20 seconds of flight at that speed.
The controller stated that he also could not see the tanker on his radar screen, but suggested that the presence of unknown military aircraft was part of a pattern. “They have been abusive to unidentified aircraft within our airspace,” the controller told the pilot.
Just a day later, on Saturday night, air traffic controllers in Curaçao alerted at least three other pilots, including on American Airlines and Delta Air Lines flights, to the presence of unidentified aircraft nearby — an apparent reference to planes flying with their transponders turned off. The recordings were published on LiveATC.net, a website that publishes radio transmissions from control towers around the world, and also on social media by radio enthusiasts.
Airspace over the Caribbean has become increasingly congested in recent weeks as the United States has sent more aircraft and equipment to the region as part of the military buildup against Venezuela. In other areas of the Caribbean, military planes carry out missions from Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic and the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier deployed to the region.
Derek Dombrowski, a spokesman for JetBlue, told The New York Times: “We have reported this incident to federal authorities and will participate in any investigation.” Tracking data shows that the JetBlue plane resumed its climb a few minutes after the episode and landed in New York without any further problems.
Col. Manny Ortiz, spokesman for the U.S. military’s Southern Command, said the agency is “aware of recent reports regarding U.S. military aircraft operations in the Caribbean and is currently reviewing the matter.” He added: “Safety remains a top priority, and we are working through the appropriate channels to establish the facts surrounding the situation.”
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It is impossible to know for sure where the tanker was flying, as it did not transmit its position. But the JetBlue pilot told the controller that the military aircraft was heading northeast, heading toward airspace administered by Venezuela.
Last weekend, other Air Force tankers — large jets capable of refueling other aircraft in flight — arrived in the Dominican Republic as part of an agreement that allowed the United States to use the country’s territory to combat drug trafficking. Since early September, the US has carried out a series of airstrikes against vessels it says are carrying narcotics, killing more than 80 people. A broad group of experts classified these attacks as illegal, an assessment rejected by the American government.
In November, the Curaçao Civil Aviation Authority issued a warning asking pilots to “exercise extreme caution” when flying to or from the country, which is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
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The message stated that pilots and radars had frequently reported the presence of “unidentified aircraft” in local airspace. It’s unclear whether all of these aircraft belong to the U.S. military, but Friday’s near miss occurred in the area covered by the alert.
The tanker’s mission was also unclear. Tracking data indicates that several other US military aircraft were flying in the region, publicly broadcasting their positions, in the hours leading up to the near miss. It is possible that the tanker was refueling these planes, but the military did not respond to questions about why he was not visible while the others were.
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