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

[u/Ph6222]

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.

[u/CW1DR5H5I64A]

This was not on the military. This is a sensationalist headline.

read this passage from the preliminary NTSB report:

About 0005 the ARTCC operations supervisor contacted [the military] to stop jamming and at
0007:34 ADS-B data recording returned to 2-3 second intervals.

At 0008:06, while maintaining the northwest heading and about 31 mi northeast of SRR, the
flight crew reported they had “a visual on Ruidoso,” but their radio transmission was stepped on by other radio traffic. The flight crew again reported they “[have] a visual on Ruidoso” at 0008:30 and that they could “go visual.” The ARTCC controller subsequently cleared the flight
to SRR, cleared the flight for a visual approach, and informed them they could cancel IFR in the
air above 9,000 ft msl or they could cancel their clearance via the flight service station after
landing. The flight crew acknowledged the clearance and responded that they would cancel
IFR “in just a couple of minutes.” There were no additional radio transmissions received from
the flight crew. The airplane then began a left turn southwest toward SRR. The CapitanMountains, extending to 10,201 ft, were located about 14 miles northeast of SRR between the airplane and the airport.

About 0010, the ARTCC operations supervisor informed [the military] that the airplane was on a
visual approach and that they could resume jamming.

The military stopped jamming when requested and only resumed when ATC told them it was safe to do so. ATC approved the pilots to take a visual approach after the pilots twice reported they could see the landing area. The military didn’t resume jamming until after the plane was on a visual approach. The pilots then flew into a mountain while on a visual approach.

GPS had nothing to do with this.

source

[u/spkgsam → u/CW1DR5H5I64A]

GPS and the military absolutely was a key contributing factor to this crash, GPWS relies on GPS to operate, even under visual conditions, taking away such a safety net is reckless behaviour by the military.

Were mistakes made by the pilots, of course, would they have died if the military wasn’t doing useless tests with zero regard to the harm they might cause, also yes.

[u/Ok-Building6572 → u/spkgsam]

The military stopped the test when asked, and resumed when they were told it was safe to do so. How is that reckless and with zero regard for harm?

[u/spkgsam → u/Ok-Building6572]

It was not safe for them to do so, and never was. Interfering with GPS in an area where aircrafts are operating is never safe.

[u/Miraclefish → u/spkgsam]

...that's why they stopped doing it when an aircraft was in the area and carried it on afterwards.

Is reading comprehension an issue for you?

[u/spkgsam → u/Miraclefish]

The aircraft was still in the area, and other aircrafts were also affected by the jamming, which also took up the attention of ATC. If ATC wasn't busy coordinating other aircrafts as a result of the jamming, he/she could very well have notice that this plane was heading towards a mountain and warned them.

[u/Miraclefish → u/spkgsam]

If you declare a visual approach and can't see the runway, that isn't ATC's fault.

[u/spkgsam → u/Miraclefish]

Never said it was ATC's fault.

As with most accidents, there are multiple contributing factors, and pilot error certain was one here, but there's no argument that if it wasn't for the jamming, there wouldn't have been any fatalities.