LAREDO, Texas – Laredo’s mayor, police chief and fire chief provided an update on a deadly plane crash during a news conference Wednesday morning.
Authorities said a business jet with six people on board crashed on a highway and caught fire Tuesday night, killing one person and causing chaos as people left their vehicles to frantically try to smash the cockpit window and free those inside.
Drivers who came upon the burning plane, which was nearly sheared in half and tipped on its side, captured dramatic rescue scenes on video or rushed toward the aircraft on foot to help. Two people came running with a sledgehammer and shovel, which they used to strike the cockpit glass and try propping open the plane’s door.
Officials, including Mayor Dr. Victor A. Trevino, applauded first responders’ efforts on scene Tuesday night.
“While the loss of life is deeply regrettable, it is nothing short of a miracle that this tragedy did not become a mass fatality event,” Trevino said Wednesday.
Laredo police officials, including Police Chief Miguel A. Rodriguez, Jr., told residents that they’re “going to be” in the area of the crash “for a while.” A Laredo police spokesperson also said Loop 20, the site of the crash, is “not going to be open anytime soon.”
Rodriguez said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were notified about the crash Tuesday night.
While Trevino said NTSB is leading the crash investigation, Rodriguez noted that the FAA has given permission for crews to begin picking up debris on scene.
Who was on board
According to Rodriguez, the plane called the Laredo International Airport at approximately 9:55 p.m. Tuesday and notified them that the aircraft was experiencing “mechanical issues.” The plane crashed minutes later.
Rodriguez said there were two pilots and three teenagers onboard. Though Trevino said the person killed “lost his life,” the identity of the fatality or others on the plane were not released.
“Out of respect of the family, and the request of the family, we’re not sharing them officially,” Rodriguez said.
Multiple media outlets, including the Texas Tribune, identified Joshua Baer, the founder and CEO of an Austin startup called Capital Factory, as the person who died. The Tribune said Baer was a board member at the publication from 2015 to 2017.
KSAT cannot independently confirm any identities stemming from the crash.
Background
The plane crashed on the Loop 20 highway near the Texas-Mexico border shortly after 10 p.m., said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department. He said one person on the plane died in the crash. A person in a car struck by the plane was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
Dashcam footage posted on social media showed the aircraft careening down the highway, taking out a light post before coming to a stop. It came to a rest not far from the Laredo International Airport.
“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” said Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she came upon the crash.
No injuries on the ground were immediately reported, though five officers were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.
The plane, a Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet, departed Tuesday evening from San José del Cabo in Mexico and was bound for Austin, Texas, the FAA said in a statement.
It’s not clear what caused the crash as it reached Laredo, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio. Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez told KGNS-TV in Laredo that the plane experienced a mechanical failure. He provided no details.
Video posted to social media showed the plane on its side, smashed into a highway barrier. The tail was ripped from the fuselage and laying mostly intact on a lower-level road beneath where the rescue was taking place.
Garza began shooting video as she approached the scene and then stopped her vehicle across from the crippled jet, which was on fire.
She saw someone inside the plane trying to break the cockpit window to escape. Soon, people got out of their vehicles to try to smash the window from the outside as the fire on the fuselage continues to burn.
Garza’s husband jumped out of their vehicle to help and Garza then saw the door of the plane open. She said three people who looked to be teenagers rushed out, followed by someone who appeared to be a pilot. Another member of the crew tried to pull out a person who seemed to be unconscious.
As smoke billowed from the plane, a firefighter used a small ladder to climb into the aircraft to rescue the remaining passenger, while others shot water out of a hose at the wreckage. Rescuers can be heard calling for a rope as others use rods to hold up the plane door.
Several times, officers helping prop open the door dart away from the plane and double over in coughing fits because of the intense smoke.
“What was worrying me was the fire,” she said. “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”
This was the third significant aviation accident in as many days. A B-52 crashed Monday during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard, while on Sunday, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.
NetJets said in a statement that the crash involved one of its aircraft and it is working with authorities. NetJets is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and allows people to buy part ownership in private jets.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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