1 killed when small plane crashes on Texas highway. People leave vehicles to try to help
A business jet reporting mechanical problems to a nearby airport crashed and caught fire on a Texas highway, killing one person and sending motorists racing from their cars to help rescue passengers from the burning wreckage.
The plane went down late Tuesday in Laredo, Texas, near the Mexican border after its crew radioed the local airport seeking to make an emergency landing. Police said six people were on board and one of them died in the crash. The jet barreled into a car, sending one motorist to a hospital in stable condition.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
The pilot radioing air traffic controllers “mentioned low fuel and a power outage,” said Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez.
“They had mechanical issues and they lost communication with the tower,” Sanchez said Wednesday, “and that’s when the accident happened.”
Cellphone video from the chaotic scene showed motorists rushing to rescue those inside the jet. One swung a sledgehammer to try to smash open the cockpit glass. Others used makeshift levers to pry open the plane’s door as the fuselage burned.
Dashcam video posted on social media showed the aircraft careening down the highway, knocking down a light post before coming to a stop near the Laredo International Airport.
The plane, a Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet, departed Tuesday evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was bound to Austin, Texas, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
The plane was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that lets people buy part ownership in private jets. NetJets said in a statement it was cooperating with authorities.
The plane crashed on the Loop 20 highway in Laredo shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department.
Video posted to social media showed the plane on its side, smashed into a highway barrier with the tail ripped from the fuselage.
“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.
Garza, who shot video of the scene as her husband ran to help, saw motorists leave their cars to try to help smash the cockpit glass. She said the plane’s door opened and three people who looked like teenagers rushed out, followed by someone who appeared to be a pilot. Another crew member tried to pull out a person who seemed to be unconscious.
Smoke billowed from the plane as a firefighter climbed into the aircraft to rescue the remaining passenger. Police officers helping prop open the door had to back away as they doubled over coughing because of the intense smoke. Police said five officers were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.
“What was worrying me was the fire,” Garza 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.
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