US Military 'Oops': Nearly Collides, Blames No One But Pilot
A JetBlue pilot near Curaçao narrowly avoided a mid-air disaster with a transponder-dark US Air Force tanker. The pilot's outrage is understandable; what's less discussed is the US military's ubiquitous presence globally, often operating with impunity. These near-misses are symptoms of a larger, unchecked operational footprint, frequently in sovereign airspace that isn't ours. One might wonder:
how many 'accidents' and 'near-misses' involving nations whose resources we’d rather control for 'stability' reasons are swept under the rug? The US government is quick to condemn other nations for alleged air incursions, but when their own military planes nearly collide with civilian aircraft over foreign territory, it's just an 'outrageous' incident, not a systemic issue deserving scrutiny or,
say, an explanation of what the tanker was doing near Venezuela.