23-year-old Ali Kawsara died alongside fellow pilot Keelan Clark and Trans Aero MedEvac flight nurses Sarah Clark and Jamie Novick in a plane crash in Ruidoso, New Mexico on Thursday May 14, 2026.
A pilot from North Texas died alongside his crew Thursday in a small medical plane crash in New Mexico, his employers and a friend said.
The plane crashed into a mountain range outside Ruidoso, N.M., before dawn Thursday, killing all four people aboard, according to a joint statement from Trans Aero MedEvac and Generation Jets. The aircraft was traveling from Roswell, N.M., to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport for a medical transport mission.
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The four crew members killed were Ali Kawsara of Fort Worth and Keelan Clark, who were both Generation Jets pilots, and Sarah Clark and Jamie Novick, who were Trans Aero MedEvac flight nurses.
The plane was located between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Thursday in steep, rocky terrain in the Capitan Mountains. Crews had to hike the last half-mile to reach the crash site, Lincoln County Manager Jason Burns said at a news conference.
Losing Kawsara left his friend Mahd Obeid devastated. The two graduated from Lamar High School in Arlington together, Obeid, 26, said. They went on to attend aviation school and became pilots together.
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Kawsara was young, but his goals and drive were beyond his years, Obeid said. He leaves behind a large family, including three brothers and three sisters.
“Ali was a loving guy,” Obeid said. “There’s nobody I’ve ever met that is like Ali. Nobody.”
Kawsara was in another crash in May 2024, Obeid said. Kawsara was flying at night when his aircraft’s single engine failed. The emergency landing was more difficult because it was hard to see at night, Obeid said.
“God protected him, and luckily, he was able to make it out at that time,” Obeid said
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Obeid said if he were in Kawsara’s position, he would’ve stopped flying after the first crash. But that wasn’t the person Kawsara was.
“It was genuinely a miracle he made it out, but he kept going,” Obeid said. “He had faith. If he didn’t have faith, he would have not continued.”
Kawsara became an airframe and power-plant mechanic, and also flew as a medical transport pilot.
While flying across state lines, Kawsara still had time to care for his community, Obeid said. Kawsara helped teach the Quran to children at Al-Hedayah Mosque in Fort Worth and always cherished time with his family.
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Obeid and Kawsara spent years flying thousands of hours together. Kawsara was sharp and flew his planes to the highest standard of safety, Obeid said.
Their friendship grew to new heights as they soared through the sky together, Obeid said. On nice days, they’d take advantage of the freedom by flying to other parts of the state or Oklahoma and get tacos together.
“I’m truly going to miss these moments,” Obeid said. “As an aircraft owner, I honestly feel like I’m not going to have a purpose to fly because it’s going to be hard. Who am I going to go fly with? I was always flying with Ali.”
Ali Kawsara and Mahd Obeid sit in the front area of a King Air plane together in 2020. Kawsara died alongside three others while flying a King Air aircraft that crashed in Ruidoso, New Mexico on Thursday May 14, 2026.
In 2020, Kawsara and Obeid sat inside a King Air plane for the first time. They were in awe, Obeid said. He learned that it was Kawsara’s dream to fly a King Air one day.
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“He kept talking about it, even throughout his career,” Obeid said. “And he flew it, but he didn’t just fly it for recreational purposes. He flew it with a purpose. He was out saving lives.”
The plane Kawsara was flying the day he died was a King Air.
The crew were on an assignment under Trans Aero MedEvac, a critical-care air medical transport provider, according to the statement. Generation Jets is a longtime private aviation partner of Trans Aero MedEvac, the statement said. The plane was reported overdue after communications and radar contact were lost, according to Trans Aero MedEvac.
“Those we lost were more than coworkers. They were family, caregivers, aviators, teammates, and friends who dedicated their lives to serving others with compassion, professionalism, and courage,” Trans Aero MedEvac and Generation Jets said in the joint statement.
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The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. The FAA has listed the crash as an accident “under unknown circumstances” in its incident alerts.
The crash sparked a wildfire in the forest of the Capitan Mountains. The fire had grown to 150 acres by Thursday night, the U.S. Forest Service of Lincoln National Forest said in a news release.
As of Wednesday morning, the fire has grown to 16,443 acres, according to the New Mexico Energy, Mineral and Natural Resources Department.
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Prior to Thursday’s crash, there were 25 fatal crashes of medical planes over the past 25 years that killed nearly 70 people, according to NTSB records.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.