Not long from now, it is likely you will receive an instruction like this from the control tower of a U.S. civil airport: "You are number two to land, Runway Two-Seven Right, behind the UAV on short final. Say contact.”

First it was Mexico denying operators overflight permits for alleged nonpayment of navigation fees. Now, it's Venezuela. Applying for overflight permits from the Venezuelan civil aviation authority Instituto Nacional de Aeronautica Civil (INAC), some international business aviation operators in the past year have been surprised when they subsequently received huge invoices for allegedly overdue navigation fees from previous trips. These can amount to tens of thousands of dollars, often charged for flights never made in Venezuelan airspace.

On the night of Dec. 20, 1995, American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757 carrying 151 passengers and eight crewmembers, crashed on a 9,800-ft. mountaintop while attempting a straight-in approach to Runway 19 at Alfonso Bonilla Aragon International Airport at Cali, Colombia. Only five passengers survived the accident, one of whom died later in hospital.