A small private jet carrying six people crashed onto a highway in Laredo, Texas, on Tuesday night, killing at least one person and sending five first responders to the hospital, authorities said.
Laredo Police Department Public Information Officer Jose Baeza told reporters at a press conference that authorities received a radio call about the incident from a local airport tower shortly before 10 p.m. CDT. The plane crashed on the north side of Loop 20, Laredo’s main bypass highway.
Baeza said the plane struck a vehicle when it crashed. It was not immediately clear if the deceased was an occupant of the plane. Identifying information would be withheld until next of kin have been notified, he said.
The condition of the five other occupants of the plane was unclear. Baeza said five first responders were taken to the hospital after suffering smoke inhalation while extracting survivors from the wreckage.
Videos of the immediate aftermath posted online show the fuselage lying upside down on the highway in flames as individuals, including police, tried to pry open the airplane’s door. One man is seen attempting to smash the cockpit’s windscreen with a sledgehammer.
The aircraft’s place of departure and destination were under investigation, as was the cause of the crash, Baeza said. He called on members of the public with video of the incident to contact authorities.
“What we have tonight is a tragic event,” Baeza said.
Federal authorities, including the National Transportation Safety Board, were either on the scene or en route, he added.
Baeza warned that Loop 20 would be closed into at least Wednesday morning and that those who use it to commute should consider other routes. He said the highway will be “completely closed … for a very, very long time.”
“This is probably going to bleed into the morning hours,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”
Laredo is home to about 270,000 people along the Texas-Mexico border.