NTSB Preliminary Report Links Military GPS Jamming to Fatal New Mexico Medevac Crash
Four people died when a King Air medevac flight struck the Capitan Mountains near Ruidoso; the National Transportation Safety Board has not determined a cause.
By AI ReporterFirst reported Aug 5, 2026, 8:00 a.m. ETUpdated Aug 7, 2026, 8:19 p.m. ET
A operating as a medevac flight struck terrain in the Capitan Mountains near , around midnight, according to reporting by Tom's Hardware, The Economic Times, AVweb, Slashdot, Jalopnik, ABC News (Australia), Snopes, Military.com, Fox News and RT. Fox News describes the aircraft as a and RT as a . Military.com, Snopes and Fox News date the crash to 14 May 2026 and RT to 13 May 2026; RT and Jalopnik put the impact , The Economic Times says , and Fox News says . people were killed, according to ABC News, AVweb, Snopes, Military.com and RT — the two pilots and two flight nurses, identified in the reporting as pilots Keelan Clark and Ali Kawsara and nurses Jamie Novick and Sarah Clark. RT, Snopes and Military.com report people were aboard. Military.com and ABC News name the operator as ; Snopes gives it as . The Economic Times reports the aircraft departed Roswell Air Center at around 11:52 p.m. on a moonless night under instrument flight rules, bound for Sierra Blanca Regional Airport to collect a patient for transport to Albuquerque. Tom's Hardware, The Economic Times, ABC News, Snopes, Military.com, Fox News and Jalopnik place the accident in the phase; RT describes it as occurring during . The story continues to develop and details may change.
No final determination of cause has been issued, and accounts differ. Tom's Hardware, The Economic Times, ABC News, Snopes, Military.com, Fox News and RT describe the findings as ; AVweb describes the investigation as open. Snopes reports the NTSB report said US military GPS jamming activities encompassed the area during the flight and that the pilot reported the airplane had lost GPS capability, adding that no evidence definitively confirms or disproves that the jamming caused the crash. Fox News reports the report says the crew reported losing GPS capability minutes after departing Roswell during a planned military GPS-denial exercise, and that investigators have not determined whether the interference caused or contributed to the crash. ABC News reports the report confirmed the plane's GPS malfunctioned because the military was jamming the signal in the area, and that the plane struck a mountainside at 9,950 feet after the pilots opted for a visual landing. Tom's Hardware reports the loss of GPS prompted a visual on a dark, moonless night and that the pilots likely descended too early in a controlled flight into terrain accident. The Economic Times reports the jamming increased pilot workload, that the crew switched to visual flight rules in darkness and flew into the mountains, and that the report does not conclude jamming directly caused the crash but calls it likely the first link in the fatal sequence. Military.com reports the report links jamming to the crash while the cause is not yet determined, noting contributing conditions of no moon, a visual into mountainous terrain and the destination's automated weather system being out of service. AVweb reports officials have not concluded that jamming caused the crash. Slashdot reports the interference did not directly cause the crash but added to the pilots' stress and workload, causing them to miss a crucial piece of information. Jalopnik reports a military electronic warfare exercise likely contributed. RT reports the exercises have been directly implicated, that the plane's altimeter read 600 feet higher than its actual altitude, that the captain reported losing GPS signal, that promised vectors never came, and that the crew navigating visually did not notice the 10,000-foot Capitan Mountains.
According to the reporting, the U.S. Air Force was conducting the NAVFEST electronic warfare exercise at White Sands Missile Range — described as about 100 miles west in some accounts, and by RT as the 746th Test Squadron's annual drills some 40 miles away — and the FAA published a Notice to Airmen warning operators that GPS could be affected up to 400 miles from the exercises between May 12 and May 18. FAA notices on the date of the crash also said Sierra Blanca Regional Airport's automated weather observation system was out of service, and instrument approaches were not authorized there without a local altimeter setting. AOPA said it is not clear whether the flight crew was aware of the jamming before taking off. Controllers used a "stop buzzer" request that paused the jamming and restored the King Air's GPS at around 12:07 a.m., then gave the OK to resume after the crew reported the airport in sight; the reporting says controllers twice asked the military to suspend the exercise. Three other aircraft in the area were also affected; RT reports controllers were busy redirecting other aircraft that had lost GPS.
Jalopnik reports the crew overshot the landing pattern for Sierra Blanca Regional Airport by 10 miles, and that the captain had held his commercial license for a year and a half. The plane descended to 9,400 feet before climbing several hundred feet, and is reported to have impacted terrain at about 9,950 feet, some 230 feet below the Capitan Mountains Summit Radio Facility — roughly 14 minutes before the jamming exercise was scheduled to end. The crash ignited a wildfire that burned more than 31,000 acres before reaching 100% containment on June 12; RT reports it took almost a month to extinguish. The outlets describe the accident as believed to be the first known case of military GPS interference in the chain of events leading to a civilian crash in U.S. airspace, and cite AOPA figures showing reported GPS disruption events in the continental rising from in 2020 to 50 in 2024, with 40 in 2025.
The aircraft has not been identified by registration in the available material. Geographic reference data places Ruidoso in Lincoln County, New Mexico, at a settlement terrain elevation of 6,742 feet, about 12 miles southwest of Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (KSRR/RUI); that data describes the place only and says nothing about what happened. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, according to ABC News, Tom's Hardware, Snopes, Military.com, Fox News and RT. Military.com reports the FAA said the NTSB has not yet determined a probable cause or any contributing factors, and that investigators collect, validate and analyze all evidence before reaching conclusions; Military.com also reports the Army declined to comment citing the ongoing investigation, while other reporting says the U.S. Army did not respond to questions from the Associated Press and has issued no public statement. The FAA declined to comment on the ongoing investigation. Snopes reports . ABC News and RT report investigators will not identify the cause until the final report is completed next year, with the final report not expected until 2027.
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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)
Added Fox News attributions on aircraft type, date, time, approach phase and the NTSB's undetermined finding; noted controllers twice asked the military to suspend jamming and that the FAA declined to comment.
Version 118 Aug 2026, 00:14
Added Snopes reporting (preliminary-report wording, operator name variant, 14 May date, ongoing investigation) and the wildfire figure of more than 31,000 acres contained on June 12.
Version 107 Aug 2026, 15:13
Restructured into five paragraphs, moved the Army's no-comment posture into the closing investigation paragraph, and flagged the story as still developing in the lead.
Version 96 Aug 2026, 15:11
Added Military.com's 14 May date alongside RT's 13 May, fuller operator name (Generations Jets for Trans Aero MedEvac), FAA/Army investigation posture, out-of-service AWOS, 'stop buzzer' detail, 14-minutes-before-exercise-end timing, wildfire acreage, and 2027 final-report expectation.
Version 86 Aug 2026, 06:46
Added ABC News reporting: operator named as Trans Aero MedEvac, NTSB preliminary report detail, victims' names, FAA Notice to Airmen, AOPA statement on crew awareness, resumption of jamming, and the 9,400-foot descent.
Version 75 Aug 2026, 19:16
Added RT reporting: 13 May 2026 date, 12:08 a.m. impact time, King Air 90 designation, four aboard, 600-foot altimeter discrepancy, 746th Test Squadron and 40-mile figure, May 12–18 FAA warning window, month-long forest fire, Army's non-response to AP, and NTSB timeline for a final cause.
Version 65 Aug 2026, 18:06
Added Jalopnik reporting: May timeframe, two pilots and two nurses killed, NAVFEST exercise 100 miles west, FAA 400-mile GPS warning, 10-mile pattern overshoot and captain's experience.
Version 55 Aug 2026, 15:40
Added AVweb as a source: four fatalities reported, AVweb's account of the GPS interference and its description of the investigation as open; attributed the GPS disruption statistics to AOPA figures.
Version 45 Aug 2026, 15:02
Added Economic Times account, departure time and airport, occupants aboard, GPS restoration time, jamming-event statistics and the 'first known case' characterisation.
Version 35 Aug 2026, 13:41
Headline and dek revised to foreground the conflicting preliminary accounts; body unchanged in substance.
Version 25 Aug 2026, 12:49
Added Slashdot's conflicting preliminary account of the role of GPS interference, presented alongside Tom's Hardware's version, and noted the flight was a medevac per both outlets.
Version 15 Aug 2026, 12:29
First published.
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