A Beechcraft King Air medevac flight crashed into a mountain in New Mexico at night, killing all four people onboard.
The four individuals killed in the crash were two pilots, Keelan Clark and Ali Kawsara, and two nurses.
The crash was likely contributed to by a US military electronic warfare exercise involving GPS jamming. Some sources suggest the jamming was the first event in a 'Swiss cheese' model of accident causation, while others state it was likely the first US civilian aircraft crash where GPS jamming acted as a contributing factor.
Military exercises and GPS interference
The US Air Force was conducting NAVFEST at the White Sands Missile Range, located roughly 100 miles west of the crash site. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has warned that GPS could be impacted up to 400 miles away from such exercises.
The Albuquerque Air Traffic Control Center was assisting three other aircraft in the area that were also affected by military operations at the time.
The last recorded information for the Beechcraft King Air showed the aircraft climbing from 9,400 feet to 9,823 feet at a ground speed of 150 knots (172 mph). The pilots had overshot their landing pattern for Sierra Blanca Regional Airport by 10 miles.
The altitude at which the aircraft impacted terrain, approximately 230 feet below the Capitan Mountains Summit Radio Facility.
The incident follows a history of GPS-related aviation issues. Two years ago, over 46,000 planes reported GPS issues while flying over the Baltic Sea, an interference officials believed was caused by the Russian military stationed in Kaliningrad. Additionally, earlier this summer, researchers at US universities identified several Russian satellites as sources of GPS interference in Europe.
