Four people died when a medical transport aircraft went down in mountainous terrain near Ruidoso, New Mexico, during the early morning hours of Thursday, according to local authorities. The crash also started a forest fire in the area.
By midday, the blaze had expanded to cover 35 acres amid windy and dry weather conditions, Lincoln County Manager Jason Burns reported. Burns expressed that county authorities were “very concerned” about the fire, with local agencies collaborating alongside the U.S. Forest Service to control the flames.
What caused the aircraft to crash remains unclear, Burns stated. Search teams located the wreckage between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Thursday in challenging, steep and rocky terrain within the Capitan Mountains that proved hard to reach, requiring crews to walk the final half-mile to access the site, according to Burns.
Those who perished included flight crew members and medical staff, Burns noted. Authorities have not released the identities of the deceased.
“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 press briefing.
The aircraft had taken off from Roswell Air Center with Sierra Blanca Regional Airport as its destination, the Federal Aviation Administration reported. Both the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will conduct investigations into the incident.
Trans Aero MedEvac operated the aircraft, which had been conducting a medical transport mission and was declared overdue when radio communications and radar tracking were lost, the company announced.
Trans Aero MedEvac has provided services throughout southeastern New Mexico and west Texas since 1966.
Ruidoso is a mountain community with fewer than 8,000 permanent residents, located at the foot of south-central New Mexico’s Sierra Blanca range. The region, which encompasses Lincoln National Forest, features dense forests and rural landscapes.
A previous medical aircraft accident in the Devil’s Canyon section of Lincoln National Forest claimed five lives in 2007. That incident occurred shortly after the flight departed from Ruidoso Regional Airport en route to Albuquerque.
Before Thursday’s accident, NTSB data shows 25 deadly medical aircraft crashes have occurred over the last 25 years, resulting in nearly 70 fatalities.
Multiple incidents have happened within the last 18 months, including a jet that went down in a Philadelphia neighborhood in January 2025, killing eight people, and an August crash on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona that killed four. In December, a Mexican Navy aircraft carrying a young patient and seven others crashed in the Gulf off the Texas coast.
Medical evacuation aircraft flights typically don’t pose greater risks than other flights since they operate between airports like standard aircraft, according to aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti. Medical helicopter operations carry higher dangers because they frequently involve landing on roadways or makeshift sites near accident scenes to rapidly transport injured individuals to hospitals.
Research examining air medical accidents across a 20-year span through 2020 revealed that helicopters accounted for more than 70% of deaths.
“Typically when an air medical air plane accident occurs, the reasons are usually the same as any other airplane accident. There’s not unique issues with the air medical mission,” stated Guzzetti, who previously worked as a crash investigator for both the NTSB and FAA.
