August 6th, 2026The Department of Defense Owes Us An Explanation

Dear Friend, There was a preventable tragedy in New Mexico late in the night on May 13th, and I’m leading our delegation in demanding answers. Just before midnight on May 13, a Beechcraft King Air medical plane with a crew of four — two pilots and two flight nurses — took off from Roswell heading to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport in Ruidoso for patient pickup and transport to Albuquerque. According to reports , the aircraft’s GPS was jammed by U.S. military activities in the region, causing the flight to overshoot their landing pattern and crash into the Capitan Mountains. As a result, all four crew members died, and the crash sparked a wildfire that took three weeks to contain. The bottom line is that those four people should still be alive today, and that wildfire should never have started. That is why, along with my colleagues from the New Mexico delegation, I sent a letter to Secretary Hegseth to demand answers on the Department of Defense’s involvement in this tragic plane crash. And I won’t stop pushing until we get the transparency and accountability we deserve. Sincerely, MARTIN HEINRICH United States Senator