Yahoo Finance Avianca suspends Venezuela flights after fighter jet incident
Colombia's commercial carrier Avianca suspended flights to and from Venezuela on Saturday after a Venezuelan fighter jet caused a diplomatic incident by approaching one of its planes, the company said.
The warplane briefly approached the airliner flying from Madrid to Bogota on Friday, prompting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to order an investigation.
The measure "will continue indefinitely until we have explicit security guarantees for crossing Venezuelan airspace," a company spokesman told AFP.
The suspension affects two daily flights between Bogota and Caracas one daily flight between Caracas and Lima.
Flights from Europe will also be rerouted to avoid Venezuelan airspace.
The airline had previously reduced the frequency of its flights to crisis-wracked Venezuela.
The incident took place Friday night, when Avianca's Boeing Dreamliner carrying 150 passengers detected the Venezuelan warplane "at close range," where it remained four minutes, the Colombian government said on Saturday.
The fighter jet then turned north and roared away.
The incident prompted diplomatic discussions and Maduro's order for an investigation.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, downplayed the incident on Saturday.
"The ministers have spoken and cleared it all up, everything is normal," he said. "There's no need to worry."
On the Venezuelan side, lawmaker Diosdado Cabello called it a "regrettable misunderstanding.
"I understand, to the best of my knowledge, there was a regrettable misunderstanding. It was nothing planned against Avianca in any way at all. It will be taken care of," said Cabello, who is also the number two in Maduro's administration.
