The GPS system on a small medical plane that crashed into a mountainside last month in New Mexico malfunctioned because the military was jamming that signal throughout the area at the time although pilots had been warned to expect that, according to federal investigators.Four people died in the pre-dawn crash on May 14 that sparked a wildfire that 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 on the crash Wednesday that described the GPS problems the pilots encountered, but investigators won’t identify the cause of the crash until they finish their final report sometime next year.Experts say the pilots should have been able to land safely by relying on ground-based navigation systems or flying visually, but relying on GPS is popular because it is so precise.
“The loss of GPS should not result in the loss of an airplane, so there’s got to be more to it than that,” said retired airline pilot John Cox, who is now CEO of Safety Operating Systems.The NTSB said that when the pilots of the plane operated by Trans Aero MedEvac started having problems, the air traffic controller gave them headings to follow into the airport so they could get lined up for an approach relying on the airport’s instrument landing system. Three other planes in the area also reported GPS problems around the same time.
