WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao is moving to formally raise aviation safety concerns with the United States following two serious near-miss incidents involving civilian aircraft and U.S. military planes operating near the island’s airspace.
According to authorities, Curaçao intends to submit a joint complaint together with the Netherlands and Aruba after military aircraft violated Curaçao’s airspace, leading to situations that narrowly avoided mid-air collisions. The incidents have intensified concerns about the safety of one of the Caribbean’s busiest civilian flight corridors.
One of the near collisions involved a JetBlue Airbus that came dangerously close to a U.S. military refueling aircraft. In a separate incident, a business jet also narrowly avoided a collision. In both cases, the military aircraft were reportedly flying without active transponders and without maintaining contact with Curaçao’s air traffic control, making them effectively invisible to civilian monitoring systems.
The incidents come amid a sharp increase in U.S. military activity in the region, driven by escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas. U.S. naval assets, including an aircraft carrier, are currently operating in the southern Caribbean, alongside fighter jets, reconnaissance aircraft, drones, and long-range bombers conducting missions in and around Venezuelan airspace.
While the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has declared Venezuelan airspace closed to civilian aviation due to heightened military risks, Curaçao’s airspace directly borders the Venezuelan-controlled region. Hundreds of commercial flights, including tourist traffic, pass through Curaçao’s Flight Information Region on a daily basis.
Curaçao is now calling on U.S. military authorities to adhere strictly to international aviation safety rules when operating near or within its airspace, including the mandatory use of transponders. Local officials stress that such measures are essential to prevent future dangerous situations and to safeguard both passengers and flight crews.
In response to the increased risk, KLM has announced that its aircraft will operate with enhanced external lighting while flying through Curaçao’s airspace, making them as visible as possible to other aircraft. The measure underscores growing concern among commercial airlines about operating safely amid intensified military activity in the region.
The developments add urgency to ongoing discussions within the Kingdom of the Netherlands about airspace safety, transparency, and the balance between military operations and civilian aviation in the southern Caribbean.