MedEvac Plane Crash Victims Identified
LAS CRUCES, N.M. --
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash of a Southwest Med Evac aircraft that killed five people.
The King Air E90 was reported missing shortly after 9:30 p.m. Sunday. A company spokesman said the crash occurred shortly after three crew members including a pilot, paramedic and a flight nurse had taken off from a Ruidoso airport with 41-year-old Tracy Smith and her 1-year-old daughter Lily.
The aircraft was transporting Smith and her child to an Albuquerque hospital.
Soldiers with the New Mexico Army National Guard located the missing aircraft at about 5:15 a.m. Monday.
"They were already flying in the air doing their counter-drug mission when they were redirected to do this mission," said Maj. Ken Nava, public information officer of the New Mexico Army National Guard.
The aircraft crew members have been identified as pilot Ricky Byers, 56, from Texas. The flight nurse Brian Miller, 44, from Roswell; and paramedic Deanna Palmer, 40, from Arizona.
Details surrounding the crash have not been released.
