A passenger plane almost collided with an American military aircraft above Curaçao on Friday evening. The Jetblue flight 1112, which was en route to New York, had to avoid the American plane during the climb, reports said. the NOS Sunday morning.
The military aircraft reportedly flew past the flight path, after which the passenger plane had to stop the climb. The NOS writes that communication in the cockpit shows that there was talk of a “near collision”. The military aircraft was not visible on radar. It would be a tanker plane.
Curaçao, like Aruba and Bonaire, is located a few dozen kilometers from the Venezuelan coast. And in recent months, tensions between the US and Venezuela have been rising.
In early December, two American fighter jets flew over the Gulf of Venezuela. It has never happened before that two American fighter planes flew so close to the Venezuelan mainland.
Earlier this week, the Dutch cabinet said that it sees “no acute threat” against the Antilles as a result of the rising tension between the US and Venezuela.
The US military presence in the area is increasing. Thousands of American soldiers are said to be stationed near Venezuelan waters. Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is against the Maduro regime and says drug smuggling from Venezuela is a threat to US national security.
The US has intervened several times at sea in recent weeks: the US Coast Guard recently boarded an oil tanker that was said to have been on its way from Venezuela to Cuba.
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