Outrage grows after report links military testing in New Mexico to fatal plane crash
Key Takeaways
- •The plane was carrying out a medical transport mission when it crashed on May 14 after the pilots became disoriented.
- •Wired reported that testing at White Sands Missile Range may have played a role in the crash, but the official cause has not been determined.
- •The crash was described as the first fatal U.S. accident known to be linked to electronic warfare.
- •Critics on social media blamed the U.S. military and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while comparing the incident to the February El Paso airspace shutdown.
- •An aerospace professor said increasing GPS jamming and spoofing poses a safety risk for commercial aviation and could keep raising risk for years.
Outrage is mounting after a new report said U.S. military testing in New Mexico may have played a role in a fatal plane crash, adding fresh scrutiny to how routine military exercises can intersect with civilian aviation.
“Defund them,” wrote attorney and political consultant Briahna Joy Gray on Tuesday in a post on X, referring to the U.S. military.
The flight ended on May 14, when a civilian plane on a medical transport mission crashed into the side of a mountain after the pilots became “disoriented,” Wired reported last week.
Although the cause of the crash has not been officially determined, Wired aviation reporter Jeff Wise said testing at White Sands Missile Range may have contributed to the incident. “While the crash was the first fatal accident in the US known to be linked to electronic warfare, there’s no reason to think it will be the last,” Wise wrote.
Christopher Hale, a Democratic political operative and former congressional candidate, blamed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directly, accusing him of being responsible for “killing everyone on board” the aircraft.
Kelly Cameron, a writer and disability activist, compared the crash with the abrupt airspace shutdown over El Paso, Texas, in February, an episode that prompted widespread criticism and accusations of “chaos” and “finger-pointing” at senior levels of the Trump administration.
“Remember when the US closed airspace over El Paso for a military training exercise and forgot to tell anyone? It gets worse,” Cameron wrote in a post on X.
“The military also jammed GPS signals and caused a medevac plane to crash, killing all healthcare workers on board. This should be a huge story.”
Cassie Pritchard, a labor organizer and writer, also responded with sarcasm, referring to Hegseth’s controversial testosterone testing policy as a supposed silver lining to the tragedy.
“But hey our military is all on TRT now, so, uh,” Pritchard wrote in a post on X.
As modern warfare increasingly relies on drones, GPS jamming has become more useful on the battlefield. But according to Todd Humphreys, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, civilian aircraft can be caught in the middle, which is part of why the report has drawn attention beyond the crash itself.
“There is no question that increased levels of GPS jamming and spoofing around the world pose a safety risk for commercial aviation. When alarms go off routinely in the cockpit, and when pilots learn to disregard key readings from their instruments because the readings can't be trusted, we're a long way from normal operation,” Humphreys told Wired.
“Air travel is still very safe, but it may be stuck for the next five years or more in a mild-and-increasing risk situation as we confront ever more GPS interference within the very-slow-to-adapt aviation industry.”
Defund them. — Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) August 5, 2026
