A JetBlue pilot reported a near mid-air collision after departing the Caribbean… and it was with a US Air Force jet!
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JetBlue A320 encounters US Air Force jet departing Curaçao
This incident happened on Friday, December 12, 2025, and involves JetBlue flight B61112, flying from Curaçao (CUR) to New York (JFK). The flight was operated by an Airbus A320 with the registration code N809JB.
After a routine departure, the A320 was climbing through around 33,000 feet for its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, when the crew spotted a US Air Force tanker immediately ahead of them, in close proximity, and in their flight path.
The US Air Force plane’s transponder wasn’t transmitting, so this was purely a visual discovery. The fact that they could tell exactly what kind of plane it was tells you how close they were. In the interaction between the JetBlue pilot and the air traffic controller, the pilot makes the following comments:
- “We just had traffic pass directly in front of us, within five miles of us, maybe two or three miles. But it was an air-to-air refueler from the United States Air Force, and he was at our altitude, we had to stop our climb.”
- “They’re heading off the northeast right now, they passed directly in our flight path. We had to stop our climb, they are not painting, they don’t have their transponder turned on. It’s outrageous.”
- “If you can make a note of it, we almost had a mid-air collision.”
The air traffic controller confirmed that he also didn’t see the plane on his radar, and commented how it’s “outrageous” having “an unidentified aircraft within our airspace, you are totally right.” Both the pilot and air traffic controller stated that they’d file reports about the incident.
The A320 ended up continuing its climb after the incident, and completed its flight to New York, where it landed safely at 8PM, after a 4hr22min flight.
Presumably this involves Venezuela operations
Several weeks back, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen), warning of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela. Per the warning:
OPERATORS ARE ADVISED TO EXERCISE CAUTION WHEN OPERATING IN THE MAIQUETIA FLIGHT INFORMATION REGION AT ALL ALTITUDES DUE TO THE WORSENING SECURITY SITUATION AND HEIGHTENED MILITARY ACTIVITY IN OR AROUND VENEZUELA. THREATS COULD POSE A POTENTIAL RISK TO AIRCRAFT AT ALL ALTITUDES, INCLUDING DURING OVERFLIGHT, THE ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE PHASES OF FLIGHT, AND/OR AIRPORTS AND AIRCRAFT ON THE GROUND.
While no airlines from the United States fly to Venezuela, this warning caused several foreign airlines to suspend flights to the country. Curaçao is very close to Venezuela, so I have to assume that the US Air Force jet that crossed in the path of the JetBlue plane was involved in some sort of Venezuela operation.
I understand the need for these planes to not appear on the standard radar, though it also seems like more caution should be taken to avoid getting in the way of commercial airliners. Or is the recommendation that all service should be suspended to places like Curaçao, Trinidad & Tobago, etc.?
In theory, military aircraft have the concept of “due regard,” whereby they operate outside of standard civil air traffic control separation rules, and they take full responsibility for avoiding traffic. While that sounds great in theory, let me remind everyone of the tragedy we saw at Washington National Airport (DCA) earlier this year, whereby a military helicopter was supposed to maintain separation from commercial aircraft. That ended with 67 fatalities.
Bottom line
A JetBlue Airbus A320 pilot reported a near mid-air collision after a US Air Force jet passed just a short distance in front of the plane while climbing out of Curaçao. The pilot called this “outrageous,” and both the pilot and controller said they’d file a report.
It’s my understanding that this isn’t the only such incident that has occurred in the region in recent times, so it seems like some more precautions should be taken. Either that could come in the form of banning US airlines from operating in certain airspace (since the US is the country issuing these warnings, and performing military operations), or perhaps simply having US Air Force jets take more precautions.
What do you make of this close call over the Caribbean Sea?
A KC tanker is a 767 and would appear closer than it actually was from the vantage point of the jet blue pilots.
To add, there was a second incident reported involving a US airforce aircraft and civilian falcon f900 on 13 December in curaçao airspace : https://nos.nl/l/2594652
Shouldn't there be military ATC to keep track of their aircraft and keep others away? It's wild they are conducting a military operation, but don't see aircraft approaching close to military aircraft as a threat. What if the plane was a Venezuelan aircraft pretending to be a JetBlue flight?
That's what they claim about "boats" probably less than 1/2 the size of A320.
They see it all, track it all.
There's probably more AWACS and UAVs in the area than anywhere else right now.
They see anything moving larger than the size of a car over the open sea.
Why are we starting a war with Venezuela? Who wants this?
Oil.
Wait, something doesn't add up. An air-to-air refueler tanker is far from a stealth aircraft. So while it sounds like it had the ADSB-out transponder off, there's no way that it would not show up on true radar.
The controller said nothing was showing up on his "scope". So was the controller looking at some professional version of FlightRadar24? Or was it in fact radar and there was an old-school blip but no ADSB data box next to it?
Okay - one explanation would be if this was far enough out over water to be out of radar coverage range.
AIr Traffic Controllers almost never use primary radar and rely on transponders for information.
@Simon - Civilian ATC almost always works from Secondary Surveillance Radar which is basically an older version of FR24 "Radar Mode".
But of course, people here have to make this political. Because of course Trump told the Air Force pilot to cut in front of a civilian aircraft.
George, it is political; it was a political choice to escalate with Venezuela. Had this administration not chosen this (likely Rubio pushing this to get back at Cuba's regime), there wouldn't be a tanker down there. Calls like yours to not 'make this political' are more telling of your own opinions. Let folks say whatever they wanna say about this and everything else. Calls to censor are weak.
Cmon George you're not 7 years old.
Haven't you learn. Everything down to your Willy size is political.
Good day,
I am formally and officially urging and calling for restraint in this matter. Safety of Aviation and the travelling public is of paramount importance. I'm parallel, military Operations are essential (as is liberation of communist Venezuela), but must be conducted carefully and safely!
Rod
Some real 'THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER' vibes...
Yet again, I find it necessary to steal your all to often used phrase: ….
“Quiet piggy”, yes?
Oink oink!
Rod, please fill the readership in on your post: has Trump actually declared war on “Communist Venezuela”?
You talk about “Liberation” have the world misses the Trump war machine starting gun?
And, get this, if there had been a midair collision, we know how this administration would’ve handled it…
For those who forgot AA5342… Trump would likely just blame ‘DEI’ to distract from any investigation of his own DoD’s failures, and not provide any meaningful assistance to victims or their families. And later threaten the NTSB director for her lack of sycophancy when she objects to resuming helicopter flights in that area… *cough*
So true!
Sorry folks, just realized I replied to my own comment! This just resonated with me so much I had to agree. Then I realized the comment was initially posted by someone with a VERY BIG BRAIN (ME!)
Hello, other '1990'... thanks for the 'back-up'... oof.
To steal your all to often used phrase: ….
“Quiet piggy”, yes?
This is upsetting to me. Won't somebody think of the PEOPLE!?
This is VERY serious and requires IMMEDIATE action by IATA and ICAO!
Yeah, no.
Let’s just ask the folks from the FDA to investigate while we are calling for irrelevant agencies to stick their finger in the pie. NOAA, want a crack at it?
AT LEAST NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT DONALD JOHN TRUMP BEING A PEDOPHILE UNDER EPSTEINS WINGS
Totally false. The DemonKKKrats would have released everything incriminating 2021-2025 if there was anything. He didn't do anything wrong.
Not false or relevant, but ok, Jess.
If the victims want the details released, publicly, I don't care what party or however wealthy and influential, let's get them actual justice, however long it takes.
On the right side of the pond, it is the responsibility of the military aircraft ’going dark’, to avoid commercial and private air traffic.
A clear case of a failure on the part of the U.S. military, full stop!
Well AeroDink, I do believe for the first time ever that I actually agree with you! NICE!
Please do not make a habit of it as that 1990, will start calling you names darlink.
There was already a second incident. A day later involving a private jet and a tanker. Sounds scary, I wouldn’t want to take off from any of these airports these days. Also crazy that there isn’t at least a notification from the air force that they are active in the area.
https://nltimes.nl/2025/12/15/two-near-collisions-military-civil-aircraft-curacao-airspace
Fake news.
Fake Eskimo
Wow that its very concerning with the transponder turned off the plane alert system TCAS don't work so you rely on visual to see traffic has this been at night with much less visibilty this could had been much worse 3-5 miles distance its not a lot at the speed planes fly that its covered in just seconds.
In an age where dash cams in cars are increasingly prevalent, this incident, and others, makes me wonder why civilian aircraft do not have an aircraft equivalent of a dash cam installed. Does anyone know the logic behind this?
And what exactly would the purpose be???
And what exactly would the purpose of being fake Eskimo be???
This is what happens when you let the military do whatever the heck they want. Just like it happens in Russia all the time.
The US Airforce doesn't seem to care about the risk. It happened again on Saturday, which might have even been closer. Just waiting for an accident to happen, after which Trump and Hegseth will blame ATC and pilots.
The US President has posted a warning on social media that airplanes should stay away from the vicinity of Venezuela. JetBlue has chosen to ignore that warning and continue operations to countries that are near the potential conflict zone for commercial reasons. Choices have consequences.
Sean M., wow, with your apparent talent of parroting propaganda I’m surprised Kagame didn’t like you… Get real, Curacao is not in Venezuelan airspace and is Dutch territory; this is moreso the US military being reckless than it is jetBlue defying our Dear Leader’s silly tweets.
Notwithstanding the root causes, the fact is that there is documented intelligence that military activity is taking place in the vicinity of Venezuela. JetBlue chose to operate to a neighbouring country despite this. Certainly, the USAF could have done better to mitigate potential conflicts, but lets not give JetBlue management a free pass here for making the choices they did to put crew and passengers in harms way.
Thanks Sean, that is a fair comment the more I think about it. Apologies for the insolence earlier.
Other '1990,' naw, I (the O.G. 1990) still respectfully disagree with Sean M.'s take. If we applied his logic to routings in Africa, no airlines there would be able to operate much. As he used to run operations for an airline based in West Africa, he really should know better.
@1990 - you're welcome to disagree. My opinion is not gospel by any means. However, if the JetBlue aircraft had been shot down accidently, or otherwise involved in an accident, you know that conventional wisdom would ask "why were they there in the first place?". Ergo QED.
While I respect @Sean M. opinions.
I'd like to ask him about IR655 MH17 KAL007, did conventional wisdom ask "why were they there in the first place?". Ergo QED.
@Eskimo - Poor examples. In all three cases, the aircraft WERE in the wrong place at the wrong time - not necessarily their fault, but intelligence or communications breakdowns nonetheless. You are making the exact same point that I am.
@Sean M.
While there may be "military activity" going on, it is not a war zone. The airspace is not closed, it isn't under military control, and all the military did was issue a NOTAM. Functionally, it's no different than if a commercial flight encounters USAF planes doing training over Colorado without closing the airspace. SOP in both cases is for the USAF aircraft, not the commercial flight, to maintain safe separation.
As this incident took place 300 miles north of Venezuela, the word "vicinity" is quite a stretch.
Curacao airspace is not Venezuelan airspace. It can also be reached directly from the US, without crossing Venezuelan airspace.
Sean M., posting on social media isn't an appropriate forum and carries no official weight. Yes, choices have consequences. When the President commits war crimes, he should do so without endangering passenger planes.
Seriously? The ABC islands are close to Venezuela with Aruba being 25 kms away. It’s a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. So the US is threatening the EU and a NATO state ? I doubt Trump even knows they exist. And you believe social media is the best place for official govt warnings ?? Are you going to inform KLM to cease operations? Trump falsely tells everyone he’s stopped wars whilst potentially starting another
It’s also in the NOTAMS. not than any of the experts here even know what that is.