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A medical transport aircraft that crashed in the mountains northeast of Ruidoso, killing all four people aboard, experienced a loss of GPS navigation capability shortly before the accident, according to a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board. The aircraft, operated as an air ambulance flight, crashed shortly after midnight on May 14, 2026, while transporting two flight nurses to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport in Ruidoso to pick up a patient. Both pilots and both medical crew members were killed. Here's what we know about the incident previously covered in June: What happened? An aircraft en route to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport near Ruidoso crashed into the Capitan Mountains and started a wildfire following the crash.
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As controllers worked to vector the aircraft toward Ruidoso, the crew initially requested an RNAV (GPS) approach before switching to an instrument landing system (ILS) approach because of the navigation outage.
