Military GPS Jamming Linked to Fatal New Mexico Medevac Crash

In mid-May, a medevac helicopter left Roswell after midnight to retrieve a patient in Ruidoso, New Mexico, and soon after reported that its GPS navigation had failed. At the same time, three additional aircraft in the region lost GPS capability while the Air Force conducted a NAVFEST electronic-warfare exercise that included GPS jamming roughly a hundred miles distant. Air traffic controllers, already handling the medevac, asked the military to suspend the interference, but the disruption continued.

Lacking reliable navigation, the crew tried to land at a visible runway but collided with a mountain, killing both pilots and two onboard nurses and sparking the Seven Cabins wildfire, which consumed more than 31,000 acres. The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary findings cite the military’s jamming as a contributing factor, the first known fatal crash tied to U.S. GPS-jamming drills. The incident adds to growing scrutiny of military-civilian airspace coordination under the current administration.