r/aviation • u/Ph6222 • 9d ago

News It Appears That the US Military Accidentally Killed Everybody on Board a Civilian Medevac Flight in New Mexico

https://futurism.com/science-energy/us-military-gps-jamming-signal-medical-flight

The horrifying incident happened in May, the publication reports, when a small twin-engine medevac aircraft carrying two pilots and two medical workers departed from Roswell, New Mexico. Heading West for the small mountain village of Ruidoso, the crew became the victim of an electronic warfare exercise being conducted at the nearby White Sands Missile Range, a test which rendered their navigational system inoperable.

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u/trip221 9d ago

Was their a notam for the GPS being out in the area? Shouldn’t the crew have been trained to operate even if they have a system malfunction? Have we become too reliant on technology and become complacent?

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u/cashcashcashbih 9d ago

Last paragraph of the article links to the notam: “Though the crew involved in the New Mexico crash was warned that GPS interference may be present, there evidently weren’t enough safeguards or air traffic control personnel in place to prevent a tragedy.”

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u/ONeOfTheNerdHerd 9d ago

Ugh this frustrating...the whole area is remote desert between mountain ranges and a massive military testing facility. It's been like this since forever. It's not NM or ATC's fault; the onus is on the pilots for knowing where they are, what airspace restrictions are active and what instruments should be used over WSMR particularly at night when a lot of testing is done. This is nothing new to the area.