The Aviation Herald is reporting that a JetBlue A320-200 crew was surprised by an Air Force tanker, apparently operating in the dark, crossing its path as it climbed out of Curacao on its way to JFK. The JetBlue crew reported to ATC that it spotted the tanker (type not specified) as they climbed through 33,000 feet on their way to their assigned altitude of 35,000. “We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control reported by the Associated Press. “They passed directly in our flight path. … They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.” The crew said the military jet was about two to three nautical miles ahead of them and they rated the incident as a “near midair collision.” They said they did not pick up any transponder transmissions from the tanker, which they surmised was on its way to Venezuelan airspace. ATC in Curacao also confirmed that they did not have the tanker on their radar. It later said the tanker was at 34,000 feet.
Curacao is an island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands about 50 miles north off the coast of Venezuela and the A320 was well outside the Maiquetia Flight Information Region airspace, which the FAA advised civilian flights to avoid due to “heightened military activity” last month. That FIR covers much of Venezuela but does not include the popular tourist islands to the north. President Donald Trump earlier this month later said the area should be considered “closed” to civilian operators without specifying the boundaries of his suggested closure. The JetBlue flight was in the Curacao FIR at the time of the conflict and about 100 miles from Venezuela, according to the Flight Aware track, which shows a slight diversion by the A320. The crew also reported they had paused their climb to make way for the tanker. The incident has been reported to the FAA. The number of people on board the airliner was not initially reported.
At FL330 in the dark, 2 to 3 miles is only seconds, and if the tanker is “dark” then the first separation tool is a startled airline crew looking out the window.
If the U.S. wants to run tankers that way near civil routes, it owns the deconfliction job. Period.
This airspace is a north/south long haul as well local Caribbean milk run thoroughfare. I can just hear Pete Hegseth now lecturing Congress on unavoidable collateral damage and “the fog of war”, not if but when one of these US military capers results in another DCA style disaster.
Pffft. Hegseth will just send them to kill the survivors (again). Can’t have witnesses, you know….