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- A medical plane crashed near Ruidoso N.M., killing four aboard Thursday.
- The cause remains unknown; a fire from the crash spread to 30 acres.
- The FAA and NTSB will investigate; dry, windy conditions complicate firefighting efforts.
SANTA FE, N.M. — A small medical plane crashed outside Ruidoso, New Mexico, Thursday morning, killing all four people aboard, officials say.
The cause of the crash was unknown, Lincoln County Manager Jason Burns said, and the U.S. Forest Service was working with local agencies to suppress a fire associated with the crash. The blaze had grown to approximately 30 acres, according to Burns, who said county officials are "very concerned" about containing the fire amid dry, windy conditions.
The victims were flight crew and medical personnel, Burns said. Their names have not yet been made public.
"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 said at a news conference.
The flight departed from Roswell Air Center and was headed to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
The plane operated by Trans Aero MedEvac had been on a medical transportation mission and was reported overdue after communications and radar contact were lost, the company said in a statement.
"We ask everyone to continue keeping the families of our crew members, as well as the first responders and personnel actively working this crisis, in your thoughts and prayers," the company said.
Ruidoso, a mountain town with a year-round population of less than 8,000, sits at the base of south-central New Mexico's Sierra Blanca range. The surrounding area, which includes Lincoln National Forest, is heavily forested and rural.
Five people were killed when a medical plane crashed in the Devil's Canyon area of Lincoln National Forest in 2007. That crash came almost immediately after the flight left Ruidoso Regional Airport bound for Albuquerque.
There have been several prominent medical plane crashes in the past 18 months, including when a jet crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January 2025, killing eight people, and four people were killed in August when a plane crashed on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. In December, a Mexican Navy plane carrying a young patient and seven others crashed off the coast of Texas in the Gulf.
A recent study tallied 87 air medical accidents that killed 239 people over a 20-year period ending in 2020. Most of those involved helicopters and some degree of human error, such as disoriented pilots, maintenance problems, impairment, fatigue or misjudging the weather.
Conditions across southern New Mexico were hot and dry Thursday, with a red flag warning for high fire risk issued for the Ruidoso area because of low humidity and wind gusts that could reach 35 mph (56 kph).
Contributing: Jacques Billeaud, Josh Funk and Matthew Brown
