NEWS
NM delegation demands answers over military potentially causing fatal medevac crash
Delegation sent a letter to Defense secretary after reports linked military GPS jamming exercise to Lincoln County plane crash
New Mexico’s congressional delegation Thursday demanded answers from the U.S. Department of Defense after a report found that the military may have caused a plane crash in Lincoln County that killed four people.
In a letter sent to Secretary Pete Hegseth, New Mexico representatives and senators questioned the department’s involvement in the medical plane crash and whether the victims’ families would be compensated for the accident.
“While this is reportedly the first time GPS jamming activities by the U.S. military have caused or contributed to the crash of a civilian plane, that does little to comfort the families of those lost in that crash or impacted by the wildfire it triggered,” lawmakers wrote.
Generation Jets pilots Keelan Clark and Ali Kawsara and Trans Aero MedEvac flight nurses Sarah Clark and Jamie Novick were traveling from Roswell to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport, northwest of Ruidoso, on May 14 when the medical transport crashed in the Capitan Mountains Wilderness area.
At least one of the four aboard was from New Mexico, according to a Trans Aero spokesperson.
Officials with the Lincoln County Office of Emergency Services said they lost radar and communications contact with the plane sometime between midnight and 4 a.m.
A report from the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that the military had been jamming GPS signals, though pilots had been given a warning by the Federal Aviation Administration beforehand.
Three other planes reported GPS issues around the same time.
“One of those aircraft expressed difficulty identifying a directed-to-ground-based navigation aid and required additional assistance from Air Route Traffic Control Center,” the NTSB report states.
It is unclear why signals were jammed, though the warning apparently referenced the White Sands Missile Range, The Associated Press reported.
The Defense Department has not confirmed if the events are correlated and the crash remains under investigation.
NAVFEST — a GPS-jamming exercise hosted at the New Mexico military range — occured the week of the crash.
Minutes before the crash, the ARTCC advised the flight crew that the airplane was above its assigned altitude. A pilot, though it is unclear if it was Clark or Kawsara, said that they were correcting their altitude after the plane lost GPS capability.
The airport’s automated weather observation system had also been out of service at the time of the flight, according to the report.
A wildfire — dubbed the Seven Cabin Fire — sparked shortly after the crash and burned over 30,000 acres over a three-week span. Lawmakers said the fire was one of two complex fires in 2026 that required a specialized team to put it out.
“There were no structures lost but the fire forced evacuation orders that remained in place for several weeks, which cost taxpayers an estimated $37.7 million in fire suppression activities,” says the letter from the state’s congressional elegation.
The New Mexico delegation inquired if the department would compensate local agencies for the resources used to respond to the crash and fire.
Additionally, legislators said that the Defense Department would need to work collaboratively with the FAA in the future in the hopes of preventing another accident, noting that the risk of affecting flights will increase due to the usage of drones and electronic warfare.
“If the DoD had not been jamming GPS in the region at the time of this crash, it is very likely that the crash would have never occurred, four people would still be alive, and this wildfire would not have started,” the letter states.
“We owe those impacted by DoD’s actions transparency and action.”
Nakayla McClelland covers crime and breaking news. Reach her at nmcclelland@abqjournal.com or at 505-823-3857.