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Plane Crashes

New Mexico delegation seeks Defense Department answers on fatal air ambulance crash near Ruidoso

Four crew members died in the May 13, 2026 Beechcraft King Air crash, which the NTSB is still investigating.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 8, 2026, 8:24 p.m. ET
crew members were killed when a crashed on near , New Mexico, on May 13, 2026, according to the Los Alamos Daily Post. The investigation remains open and developing. The Daily Post reported the aircraft had taken off from Roswell bound for Sierra Blanca Regional Airport in to pick up a patient, and that the people aboard were two pilots and two flight nurses. All crew members died, according to that reporting. The cause of the crash has not been determined. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. According to the Daily Post, the New Mexico Congressional Delegation has sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding answers about the Defense Department's involvement, and lawmakers said this is reportedly the first time U.S. military GPS jamming contributed to a civilian plane crash. That is a statement by lawmakers, not a finding by investigators; the NTSB's investigation is ongoing, and a commitment was made to fully cooperate with it. The Daily Post also reported that the crash sparked a wildfire that took three weeks to contain and burned 31,860 acres, with suppression costs estimated at $37.7 million to taxpayers. Evacuation orders remained in place for several weeks and no structures were lost. Geographic reference data lists , in Lincoln County, New Mexico, at a settlement elevation of 6,742 feet, about 12 miles southwest of Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (KSRR/RUI). That figure describes the town, not the accident site.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Terrain elevation
6,742 ft
Nearest aerodrome
12 miles SW of Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (KSRR/RUI)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 19 Aug 2026, 00:24current

    First published.

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