Loss of Remote Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) leads to unreliable GPS data, creating a dangerous loss of situational awareness, especially in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) or at night.
Pilots should check RAIM availability pre-flight, have backup navigation plans, and if RAIM is lost during an approach, immediately switch to alternate navigation or climb to a safe altitude to avoid terrain.
A recent fatal air ambulance crash in New Mexico, where GPS was repeatedly lost due to military jamming, highlights the critical dangers of relying solely on GPS without backup navigation, especially when NOTAMs indicate service outages and in challenging dark or mountainous conditions.
The incident underscores the importance for pilots to always be prepared for GPS failure and to prioritize climbing immediately if GPS integrity is lost during an approach to prevent collisions with terrain.
Losing situational awareness on any flight is a bad thing, but it’s particularly bad in IMC.
When you can’t see the horizon because of clouds or darkness, it can become a potentially deadly situation. This is why instrument flight candidates are taught to fly by “partial panel,” which means the instructor “fails” an instrument, often the attitude indicator, by covering it up.
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Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
