By David Shepardson WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of key senators and the head of the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday sharply criticized provisions on military helicopter safety in an annual defense bill released this week.

A JetBlue pilot described the near-collision between his plane and a military aircraft with its transponder turned off near Curaçao “outrageous.”

Safety investigators and lawmakers are opposing provisions in the US defence spending bill that would exempt some military helicopters from aircraft-tracking requirements, citing risks highlighted by January's fatal Potomac River collision.

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Trinidad and Tobago has granted approval for United States military aircraft to transit its airports in the coming weeks, the foreign ministry of the Caribbean country said on Monday.

Government has confirmed that it will permit United States military aircraft to transit local airports in the coming weeks, as part of ongoing bilateral security cooperation between the two countries.

The US Navy has recovered two aircraft that crashed into the South China Sea in October while flying off the USS Nimitz, the service said in a statement Tuesday.

Trinidad's former Caribbean Community (Caricom) and foreign affairs minister, Dr Amery Browne, has described as 'deceptive' a statement issued by the Trinidad and Tobago government on Monday indicating that it had granted approval for United States military aircraft to transit the local airspace “in the coming weeks”.

The government of the Dominican Republic has authorised several United States military aircraft to land in the country in the coming

The United States Air Force has over 5,000 aircraft in its arsenal. One of its planes, however, has been in service and production longer than the rest.

A bipartisan group of key senators on Wednesday sharply criticized provisions on military helicopter safety in an annual defense bill released this week, arguing it

The government of the Dominican Republic has authorised several United States (US) military aircraft to land in the country in the coming days as part of an operational support deployment in the Caribbean.