GoKawiilA medevac flight from Roswell Air Center (ROW), New Mexico, to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (SRR) crossed into an area where there were “GPS jamming activities” by the U.S. military — minutes later, it crashed into a mountain as it was on final approach to its destination. According to the NTSB’s Preliminary Report [PDF], the crew, alongside several other aircraft, experienced issues with their navigation system consistent with the effects of GPS jamming, as reported by Wired.
While the GPS interference seemingly did not directly cause the crash, it’s apparent that it was the first domino in a chain of events that led to the fatal accident. This raises urgent questions about GPS jamming as reported incidents of GPS interference mount across the world.
An uneventful departure
The preliminary report said that it was a dark, moonless night, meaning it would be difficult for anyone to fly visually. That’s because the dark sky and ground would make it difficult to locate the horizon and could quickly lead to spatial disorientation. The twin-engine Beechcraft King Air propeller plane took off from its base at Roswell Air Center (ROW), New Mexico, at around 11:52 pm. As it was climbing to altitude at 11:54 pm, the pilots requested and received an instrument flight rules (IFR) clearance from Albuquerque Center, the air route traffic control center in charge of the area.
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This switch meant that the pilots would now primarily fly the plane using instruments in the cockpit instead of looking outside the windows. This is a normal procedure and is what most passenger airliners use during operations. Furthermore, it seems that the pilots have filed for clearance before they took off, as evidenced by their “as filed” clearance to SRR.
First sign of trouble
At around 12 midnight, Albuquerque Center told the flight crew that they were 1,000 feet above their assigned altitude. The pilots then said they were correcting their altitude, but they also mentioned that they’ve lost GPS capability. From there, they asked for a heading, and they were told to proceed to heading 275 towards SRR. About a minute after this, air traffic control (ATC) told them to proceed to heading 350 to set them up for a landing on runway 24 at SRR.
Around five minutes after this radio communication, ATC called the military and asked them to stop their GPS jamming activities in the meantime. At 12:07 am, the NTSB said that the Beechcraft’s GPS instruments resumed regular recording. The pilots then called Albuquerque Center a minute after this, saying that they had “a visual on Ruidoso,” the town nearest to SRR, and that they were transitioning to visual flight rules (VFR). This meant that they were moving away from the direct control of the ATC and would navigate and fly using visual cues.
A mountain hiding under a moonless night
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