Pilot narrowly avoids ‘midair collision’ with US air force plane near Venezuela

JetBlue pilot calls incident outrageous' and says US military refueling tanker didn't have transponder turned on

A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curacao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US air force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.

We almost had a midair collision up here," the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. They passed directly in our flight path ... They don't have their transponder turned on, it's outrageous."