A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curaçao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US air force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.
“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path … They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.”
Most of the world doesn’t have decent primary radar, especially out over international waters like where this occurred. Likely just a low frequency radar that can say “yup, there’s something out there” but not “he is right there.” The world works on transponders.