A commercial flight departing the Caribbean island of Curaçao halted its climb Friday after narrowly avoiding a collision with a U.S. Air Force refueling aircraft, according to air traffic control recordings, with the pilot accusing the military plane of crossing directly into the flight path without an active transponder. The JetBlue aircraft was on its way to Venezuela.
"We almost had a midair collision up here," the pilot told air traffic control, according to the recording. "They passed directly in our flight path... They don't have their transponder turned on. It's outrageous."
