Military jamming disrupted a medical plane’s GPS system before it crashed last month in New Mexico
GPS system a crashed small medical plane Even though pilots had been warned to expect it, the aircraft crashed into a mountainside in New Mexico last month because the military was jamming the signal throughout the area at the time, federal investigators said.
Four people died in the accident that occurred at dawn on May 14. caused a forest fire The fire burned for weeks in the rugged Capitan Mountains around Ruidoso, where the plane was trying to land that night.
The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report into the crash Wednesday describing the GPS problems the pilots encountered, but investigators won’t be able to determine the cause of the crash until they complete their final report next year.
Pilots need to be able to land safely by relying on ground-based navigation systems or flying visually, but relying on GPS is popular because it is so accurate, experts say.
“The loss of GPS should not result in the loss of an aircraft, so it has to be more than that,” said John Cox, a retired airline pilot who is now CEO of Safety Operating Systems.
The NTSB said that when the pilots of the plane operated by Trans Aero MedEvac began experiencing problems, the air traffic controller gave them directions to follow into the airport so they could line up for the approach, relying on the airport’s instrument landing system. Around the same time, three other aircraft in the area also reported GPS problems.
At one point, the controller even contacted the military and had them turn off the jammers. But shortly before the crash, the pilots told controllers that they had the airport in sight and planned to land visually, so controllers gave the military permission to continue jamming.
“If you can see the runway, you can see the mountain. Why would you fly there?” Cox asked because despite the new details in this preliminary report, there are still many unanswered questions about the crash.
Ruidoso, a mountain town with a year-round population of less than 8,000, is located at the base of south-central New Mexico’s Sierra Blanca mountain range. The surrounding area, which includes the Lincoln National Forest, is densely forested and rural. The wildfire that started after the crash burned 48.4 square miles (125.4 square kilometers), but officials said on June 12 that the fire was 100% contained.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a Memorandum to Airmen that warned pilots flying into the area in advance that the military would jam GPS signals; That’s why aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said medevac pilots should be prepared to rely on other navigation systems.
But Arroyo said pilots often rely on GPS because it can guide them safely even in difficult areas where the margin for error is narrow when navigating around obstacles.
“GPS can bring you in with exactly the required margin of safety and bring you down for landing. But if you don’t have GPS, you can’t make that approach within those limits and you can drift outwards using conventional navigation,” said Arroyo, a long-time pilot for United Airlines.
But when pilots decided to try a visual approach, they took on the responsibility of avoiding any obstacles en route to the airport.
The NTSB said the plane descended to 9,400 feet (2,865 meters) as it approached the airport before climbing several hundred feet. But then the plane crashed into a mountainside at an altitude of 9,950 feet (3,000 meters). The impact point was approximately 230 feet (70 meters) below the Capitan Mountains Summit Radio Facility.
Trans Aero MedEvac has operated in southeastern New Mexico and west Texas since 1966. Those who died in the accident were identified as pilots Keelan Clark and Ali Kawsara from Generation Jets and flight nurses Jamie Novick and Sarah Clark from Trans Aero MedEvac. The plane was heading from Roswell Air Center to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport when it crashed.
