Joshua Baer, founder and CEO of Austin-based startup accelerator Capital Factory, died Tuesday night in a plane crash on a Laredo highway.
The business jet was carrying six people when it crashed onto Loop 20 and caught fire around 10 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Recommended Videos
Baer, who was also a Texas Tribune board member from 2015 to 2017, was the only person who died. The other five passengers were taken to local hospitals with no serious injuries. Most of them were released shortly after, said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department.
Capital Factory confirmed in a statement to KVUE Wednesday morning that Baer died in the crash. The company said that for more than two decades, Baer was a “visionary force, mentor, and champion for the Texas technology and startup ecosystem.”
“Josh was a fearless leader, a brilliant partner, and a dear friend to so many of us,” Capital Factory president Bryan Chambers said in a statement. “While we are devastated by this unimaginable loss, Josh built an incredibly resilient organization and a deeply capable team.”
The plane, a Cessna 680A business jet operated by NetJets, struck a car, whose passengers were taken to a nearby hospital with “no critical injuries,” Baeza said. Five officers were also treated for smoke inhalation and cleared at 2:45 a.m.
After the plane hit the ground, nearby highway motorists and passengers assisted the people inside, according to footage of the crash’s aftermath. Two of them tried to break through the cockpit’s window by smashing it with a sledgehammer and a shovel. Most plane passengers were able to exit the jet on their own.
The plane departed Tuesday evening from San José del Cabo, a city at the southernmost point of Baja California Sur, in the Mexican Pacific. It was bound for Austin, according to the FAA.
At approximately 9:55 p.m., one of the pilots called the Laredo Airport to inform them that the Cessna was having “mechanical issues,” said Baeza. He requested an emergency landing.
Five minutes later, the Laredo PD began to receive 911 calls about a plane crash on Loop 20.
The mechanical issues that might have prompted the accident are not clear yet.
“The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the crash. The NTSB will lead the investigation and provide future updates,” said the FAA.
A police officer who was heading home after a shift witnessed the crash. He was one of the drivers who ran to aid the plane passengers.
“We had first responders there almost immediately. There was almost no delay in response,” said Baeza, who thanked “the community and the heroism of many people who were simply on the same road and immediately rushed to try to rescue people they didn’t know at all.”
The identity of the passengers hasn’t been released yet. Baeza said that some of them were family and friends who were flying back from San José del Cabo.