A JetBlue flight departing the Caribbean island of Curacao on Friday was nearly involved in a mid-air collision, according to air traffic control audio.
A United States military aircraft crossed directly in front of the passenger jet shortly after takeoff as it was still climbing to its cruising altitude, according to the JetBlue pilot on the recording. The pilot says on the audio that the US Airforce refueler plane came within five miles of the JetBlue aircraft, according to a report from ABC News.
Air traffic controllers state on the recording that the military plane was not transmitting its location and therefore wasn’t detected.
“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said on the recording. "They passed directly in our flight path ... They don’t have their transponder turned on; it’s outrageous."
The incident occurred aboard JetBlue flight 1112 from Curucao to New York JFK on December 12, according to the ABC News report.
The incident is one of several high-profile near-misses that have occurred throughout 2025. These types of close calls have been in the spotlight for the last year or so after a tragic mid-air collision in January 2025 killed 67 people in Washington D.C. That fatal accident also included a military aircraft that crossed into a passenger plane’s flight path.
Following the incident with the JetBlue plane, the FAA issued a Notice to All Air Missions (NOTAM) that advises pilots to exercise "extreme caution" in Curacao’s airspace due to reports and other indications of "non-identified aircraft operations" through the end of December, according to ABC.
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