[pradmatic]

Why was the Air Force plane’s transponder turned off? This is negligence that almost killed a plane full of people and endangered a national security operation. Outrageous.

[t0mas88]

It's expected for military operations to fly without transponder, they don't want to have their location visible. But it's crazy that they're also doing it in Curacao controlled airspace without agreeing a restricted area.

Even for training they set up restricted/military areas in airspace all the time. Not doing it here, in allied (Curacao is part of the kingdom of the Netherlands) airspace is unacceptable. They could have coordinated this in the normal ways so ATC would route civilian traffic around the military operations or talk to the military controllers (who can see both types of traffic) before sending an aircraft through the shared airspace.

This isn't new, it's how military operations are done all the time.

[neom]

Just a reminder the US military also conducts training operations around large civilian airports within the USA, with their ADS-B turned off, in this instance resulting in the death of 67 people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Potomac_River_mid-air_col...

[afandian]

Presumably they have flight plans, can listen to ATC, RADAR etc.

So what's the plan? Just expect everyone to get out of their way?

[PunchyHamster]

Do they have possibility of receiving the civilian transponders ? Even if it was off they shoudld've picked different flight height...

[jeroenhd]

Curacao is a few kilometers of the Venezuelan coast, but the Americans have deemed the entire ocean north of Venezuela as military operations. The people in charge probably don't even know Curacao isn't part of Venezuela.

With effectively no military and the Dutch government being an American lapdog, I doubt the people in charge need to care. They're already out there with orders to commit war crimes, shooting down an airliner or two that gets too close to their military aircraft wouldn't make much of a difference in the long run.

[Suzuran]

Turning the transponder off only prevents civilian ATC from knowing your identification and altitude. They will still see your position as a primary target on their radar.

[gpvos]

Trump doesn't understand the word "allied".

[ulfw]

It's a tanker not a stealth fighter.

[ErroneousBosh]

> It's expected for military operations to fly without transponder

It's been a problem specifically with US military aircraft for years that they just wander into other people's airspace with transponders off and expect to have it all to themselves.

We should just start shooting down anything big enough to need a transponder that is not using one. Doesn't matter who's in it, doesn't matter what it's for.

[ceejayoz]

Because it’s flying near Venezuela, who we’re currently fucking with militarily.

[perlgeek]

The proper action then would be to declare war, and announce that the airspace is no longer safe for civilian use.

The whole "oh yes, our military is active, but we aren't at war, and yes, the president tweeted about that" spiel is just untenable and ridiculous.

[bdangubic]

we wouldn’t be doing that, we voted for President that will end all the wars, not start new ones

[testbjjl]

We? Seems like a personal vendetta from my perspective. I in no way shape or form want to send Americans to Venezuela for the holidays to start an armed conflict.

[isodev]

Can’t you do it safely, with transponder on? It’s not like it will get softer or anything.

[padjo]

I believe the term of art de jour is “special military operation”

[muragekibicho]

Is it an inside joke I missed? 'Militarily' here and another comment had 'Bigly'. Is it a Trumpism?

[schmuckonwheels]

Common sense would dictate that a military aircraft conducting military operations off the coast of a hostile nation tend to not want to broadcast their position to the world. So not outrageous, just unfortunate. It's extremely common.

[malvim]

I’m sorry, which hostile nation?

[trhway]

On the other side it is perfectly visible on radar (and can be heard (and with jet having its own characteristic signature it can be tracked even by WWII microphone array like they did back then) and visible in binoculars from large distance in nice Caribbean weather), so it is hiding only from civilians. Security by obscurity kind of. That is especially so in the case of a slow large non-maneuvering tanker plane like here.

And why would a tanker plane come close to and even enter the hostile airspace?! may be one has to check Hegseth's Signal to get an answer for that, probably it is something like "big plane -> Scary!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mUbmJ1-sNs.

[perlgeek]

If you initiate a military conflict with another nation, the proper thing to do is to declare war first.

[adastra22]

> a national security operation

You answered your own question here.

Military planes doing military things always fly with their transponder off. It would be suicide not to.

[ceejayoz]

Military planes often deliberately have them on; not every mission is secretive. You can often see NATO planes on FlightAware in the Black Sea clearly keeping an eye on the Ukraine theatre.

Example: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/FORTE10/history/20230821...