A small business jet carrying six people crashed onto a highway in Texas, killing one person and injuring five others. The NetsJet-operated Cessna Citation Latitude jet had left San José del Cabo, Mexico, heading towards Austin, Texas, when it diverted towards Laredo.
The plane appeared to have lost contact with air traffic control before it crashed onto a highway around three miles from Laredo International Airport. After experiencing an apparent mechanical failure, the plane hit a moving car on the roadway.
Other drivers on the highway found the plane broken in half and tipped over, on fire. Footage showed two people with a sledgehammer and shovel which they used to break the cockpit glass window and open the plane’s door.
‘It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,’ Zayra Garza, who came upon the accident, told KARK. She said three people who looked like teenagers rushed out of the plane, along with someone who appeared to be a pilot.
One person is dead, and the other five passengers are injured, police said, having been transferred to a local hospital. Laredo Police Public Information Officer Jose Baeza told CNN: ‘Regrettably and tragically, there is one deceased involved in this crash.’
Five police officers responding to the crash were also rushed to the hospital for injuries sustained during the rescue operation, he added.
