A business jet carrying six people crashed onto a highway in Laredo, Texas, on Tuesday night, bursting into flames and leaving one person dead. The impact sheared the aircraft nearly in half and tipped it onto its side against a concrete barrier, triggering chaotic rescue efforts from passing motorists.
The accident occurred shortly after 10 p.m. on Loop 20, a thoroughfare near the Texas-Mexico border and not far from Laredo International Airport. Dashcam footage posted online showed the plane careening along the road, knocking down a lamppost before coming to rest. The tail section had detached from the fuselage and lay largely intact on a lower-level road beneath the main wreckage site.
According to Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department, it remained unclear whether the deceased individual had been aboard the aircraft or on the ground. No ground injuries were immediately reported, although five police officers were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.
Dramatic rescue scenes unfolded as bystanders rushed toward the burning aircraft. Zayra Garza, an esthetician driving coworkers home, arrived at the scene and began recording video. She saw someone inside the cockpit trying to break the window from within. Soon, other drivers stopped their vehicles and ran over with a sledgehammer and a shovel, striking the cockpit glass and attempting to pry open the plane’s door.
Garza’s husband joined the effort. She then witnessed the door swing open: three people who appeared to be teenagers scrambled out, followed by someone she believed to be the pilot. Another crew member tried to pull out a passenger who seemed unconscious. Firefighters later arrived, using a small ladder to climb inside and extract the remaining occupant, while colleagues sprayed water on the blazing wreckage. Rescuers could be heard calling for ropes and using poles to hold the door open. Several officers helping to prop the door repeatedly backed away, doubling over in coughing fits from the thick smoke.
“What worried me was the fire—I was afraid it could explode at any moment,” Garza told local media.
The aircraft was identified as a Cessna Citation Latitude twin-jet, according to FlightAware data. It had departed from Los Cabos International Airport in Mexico at 6:19 p.m. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez told KGNS TV that the plane experienced a mechanical failure, without providing further details.
This accident marked the third major aviation disaster in as many days. On Monday, a B-52 bomber crashed during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing all eight people aboard. On Sunday, 12 people died when a plane carrying skydivers went down in Missouri.
NetJets, the private-jet ownership company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, confirmed in a statement that the crashed aircraft belonged to its fleet and said it was cooperating with authorities.