A small medical plane crashed in a mountain range near Ruidoso, New Mexico, before dawn on Thursday, resulting in the deaths of all four individuals on board and triggering a wildfire in the surrounding forest, officials reported.
The fire had expanded to 35 acres (14 hectares) by midday due to dry and windy conditions, according to Lincoln County Manager Jason Burns. Burns expressed that county officials were "very concerned" about the blaze, and local agencies are collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service to contain it.
The cause of the crash remains unknown, Burns said. The wreckage was located between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Thursday in steep, rocky terrain within the Capitan Mountains, which was challenging to access. Crews had to hike the last half-mile to reach the crash site.
The victims included flight crew and medical personnel, though their names have not yet been released. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the families, loved ones, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives in this tragic incident," Burns stated during a news conference.
The flight departed from Roswell Air Center and was en route to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the crash.
Operator and Context
The plane, operated by Trans Aero MedEvac, was on a medical transportation mission and was reported overdue after losing communications and radar contact, the company said in a statement. Trans Aero MedEvac has been operating in southeastern New Mexico and west Texas since 1966.
Ruidoso, a mountain town with a year-round population of fewer than 8,000, sits at the base of the Sierra Blanca range in south-central New Mexico. The surrounding area, including Lincoln National Forest, is heavily forested and rural.
In 2007, five people were killed when a medical plane crashed in the Devil's Canyon area of Lincoln National Forest, shortly after departing Ruidoso Regional Airport for Albuquerque.
According to NTSB records, there have been 25 fatal crashes of medical planes over the past 25 years, resulting in nearly 70 deaths. Several have occurred in the last 18 months, including a jet crash into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January 2025 that killed eight, and a crash on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona in August that killed four. In December, a Mexican Navy plane carrying a young patient and seven others crashed off the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
Safety Perspective
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti noted that medical evacuation plane flights are generally not more dangerous than other flights, as they travel between airports like any other plane. However, medical helicopter flights are more hazardous because they often involve landing on roads or improvised sites near vehicle crashes to quickly transport injured individuals. A study of air medical accidents over a 20-year period ending in 2020 found that more than 70% of fatalities occurred on helicopters.
"Typically when an air medical plane accident occurs, the reasons are usually the same as any other airplane accident. There’s not unique issues with the air medical mission," said Guzzetti, a former crash investigator for the NTSB and FAA.
Associated Press writers Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix, Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.
