Alamogordo White Sands Regional Airport in Otero County.

Two people were killed in a private plane crash in southern New Mexico ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

The plane took off around 11:30 a.m. Nov. 26 and was scheduled to return to its “airport of origin” an hour later, according to New Mexico State Police.

Officials didn’t specify what airport that was, though they said the plane was last known to be near the Alamogordo White Sands Regional Airport, around 60 miles northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

A family member of one of the passengers reported the plane missing after the person didn’t return from the flight, according to KOAT-TV in Albuquerque.

Search and rescue personnel found the plane on the morning of Nov. 27 near Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a small community within the Lincoln National Forest that’s just over a dozen miles away from the Alamogordo White Sands Regional Airport.

New Mexico State Police, the Alamogordo police and fire departments and New Mexico Search and Rescue were among the agencies involved in the effort.

The plane was found burned with two bodies inside. The names of the deceased were not immediately made public.

The incident was listed as an accidental crash on the National Transportation Safety Board’s incident database as of Nov. 28. An investigation is ongoing.

Incident follows other plane crashes in 2025

The New Mexico crash comes toward the end of a tumultuous year for aviation.

A mid-air collision between a commercial passenger jet and a military helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killed 67 people in January. It marked the first high-profile commercial aviation crash since 2009, when a commercial plane crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people.

Two more people were killed several weeks after the Potomac River crash when two fixed-wing, single-engine planes crashed mid-air near Marana, Arizona.

Earlier in November, a UPS cargo plane burst into flames and crashed shortly after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky, killing 14 people.

Amid flight and airport chaos stemming from the historic government shutdown, President Donald Trump pledged on Nov. 10 that the United States would soon be “getting the finest air traffic control system anywhere in the world.”

Trump did not provide many details but said companies including IBM and Raytheon were bidding to build the new national infrastructure.

“...We’re going to pick the best one, and it’ll get built relatively quickly, and we’re going to have the greatest air traffic control system anywhere in the world,” he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2 killed in New Mexico plane crash, investigation ongoing

Reporting by BrieAnna J. Frank and Jessica Onsurez, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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