The business jet skidded sideways down a dark Texas highway, clipping one light pole after the next, a trail of orange sparks in its wake.
Tow truck driver Ivan Franco initially thought he was looking at a car accident from a distance. When he got closer, the reality was far more alarming — a plane, snapped in two, lying on its side with flames beginning to climb. Franco dug into his truck’s rescue kit and grabbed a sledgehammer along with three fire extinguishers, which he passed off to officers already arriving at the scene.
“At that moment, you don’t think much about what to do, because I knew the plane could explode since it was on fire,” Franco told The Associated Press in Spanish. “My idea was to try to break the windows because the pilots hadn’t come out yet.”
Franco was among a handful of motorists who came across the wreckage in Laredo, Texas, late Tuesday night and immediately jumped into action — putting themselves at serious risk to help those trapped inside escape while smoke filled the cabin.
Police also arrived rapidly, and officials said the combined effort between officers and civilian bystanders almost certainly prevented more deaths.
“The officers and the good Samaritans that went to the scene, our firefighters that responded — I do also want to commend each and every one of them,” Laredo Police Chief Mike Rodriguez said at a news conference Wednesday. He added that he directed staff to identify every civilian who helped at the scene.
According to the FAA, the Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet had taken off Tuesday evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was headed to Austin, Texas. The aircraft was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that sells fractional ownership in private jets. NetJets issued a statement saying it was working with authorities.
The crash happened after the pilots declared a mechanical emergency and requested permission to land at a nearby airport. The main fuselage ended up draped across a concrete barrier, while the tail section broke away and landed on a lower stretch of road.
One passenger lost his life: Joshua Baer, a prominent figure in Texas’ technology and startup communities. Three teenage passengers and both pilots made it out alive, as did the driver of a truck that was struck by the plane during the crash. Authorities have not provided further details about the relationships among the passengers.
Crash investigators spent Wednesday sifting through the debris for answers about what went wrong.
The Laredo crash was the third notable aviation accident in the United States within just three days. On Monday, a B-52 went down during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing all eight people on board. The day before that, 12 people died when a plane carrying skydivers crashed in Missouri.
Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was giving co-workers a ride home, was among the motorists who pulled over in Laredo after spotting the wreckage. She filmed the scene on her phone while her husband ran toward the plane to help.
“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” Garza said. The fire was her biggest concern: “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”
Garza watched as people abandoned their vehicles to try to shatter the cockpit glass. Her video captures the aircraft’s door cracking open slightly from the inside as a voice screams “Help! Help! Help!” Rescuers can be seen straining to force the door open wider as three teenagers scramble out, followed closely by one pilot and then the other.
Franco, a 23-year-old Laredo resident, swung his sledgehammer furiously through thick, black smoke. Other bystanders attacked the windows with a shovel and tools pulled from their own vehicles.
Despite their efforts, the most they managed was to leave a web of small cracks in the cockpit window. Aircraft windshields are engineered with multiple layers of glass specifically designed to stay structurally intact even when the outer surface breaks — built to withstand bird strikes at cruising speed and extreme pressure at high altitude.
“They are basically bulletproof,” said retired airline pilot John Cox, who serves as CEO of Safety Operating Systems.
As smoke continued to thicken, police officers worked to reach the last person still inside — Baer — but were forced back, doubled over coughing from the fumes.
Firefighters equipped with oxygen masks were ultimately able to enter the aircraft.
Responders also pulled a dog from the wreckage. The animal was suffering from smoke inhalation and was handed over to animal control, with investigators expecting it to survive, according to Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department.
Five officers were treated for smoke inhalation. All five survivors of the crash were later discharged from the hospital.
As the jet came down on the northbound side of the highway, one of its wings struck a truck traveling in the opposite direction. That driver also survived, Baeza confirmed.
Social media has been flooded with praise for the bystanders who stopped to help, with many calling out their courage and selflessness.
Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño described the outcome as “nothing short of a miracle that this tragedy did not become a mass fatality event,” crediting both the late hour of the crash and the swift response of first responders.
Franco said that in those frantic moments, his only focus was getting people out. But he had to push through one powerful emotion to do it.
“You’re in constant fear,” he said. “You don’t know what situation you’re in.”
