"JetBlue Flight 1112 was traveling to New York from the Caribbean island of Curacao, about 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela. Radio transmissions show that barely 20 minutes into the flight, the pilot was forced to halt his trajectory to dodge the tanker located less than 20 seconds away at the flight's flying speed. They don't have their transponder turned on, it's outrageous, the pilot said at the time to air traffic controllers. We almost had a midair collision up here."
"Air traffic control communicated to the JetBlue pilot that they were also not able to see the tanker on radar, telling him that the unidentified military aircraft was not the first. They've been outrageous with the unidentified aircraft within our airspace, a controller told the pilot. It remains unclear where the tanker was heading at the time, though the commercial pilot told controllers that it had been flying northeast, toward Venezuelan airspace."
JetBlue Flight 1112, en route from Curacao to New York, encountered an uncommunicative U.S. Air Force refueling tanker roughly 40 miles off Venezuela. The JetBlue pilot halted course about 20 minutes into the flight to avoid the tanker, which passed less than 20 seconds away at flight speed. The pilot reported the tanker lacked a transponder and nearly caused a midair collision. Air traffic control could not see the tanker on radar and said unidentified military aircraft have been repeatedly present. U.S. Southern Command is reviewing the operation. Curacao air traffic control warned other pilots. JetBlue reported the incident to federal authorities.
Read at www.mediaite.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]