A small private jet crashed onto a busy highway in Texas, killing one person and leaving five others to survive a harrowing ordeal, as bystanders and emergency responders rushed in to pull people from the burning wreckage. Dramatic video captured the chaotic moments after the crash, with flames shooting from the overturned aircraft. "It looked like a horror movie," one witness said.
The aircraft, a Cessna Citation Latitude owned by NetJets, had taken off from San Jose del Cabo in Mexico and was en route to Austin when it ran into trouble. According to officials, a mechanical issue developed during the flight, and a radio call from the local airport tower warned that the aircraft was in distress and that controllers had lost communication with it.
There were six people on board. One person was killed in the crash, while the other five survived. Footage showed someone in the cockpit trying to smash a window as smoke billowed out of the opening and filled the cabin, underscoring how narrow the escape was for those who managed to get out alive.
The force of the impact tore the jet in two. The front of the fuselage came to rest on the upper level of Loop 20, a heavily traveled highway, while the tail section ended up below. Flames poured from the flipped-over plane as the first people on the scene scrambled to reach the survivors.
Among those who jumped in to help were ordinary drivers who happened upon the scene. Zaira Garza and her husband were driving home when they came upon the wreck, and her husband rushed out of their car to assist. "He was one of those heroes," she said, describing her fear that the fire could cause the aircraft to explode.
Five of the people from the plane were taken to a local hospital in stable condition. Several of the good Samaritans who rushed in to help suffered smoke inhalation as they worked to free those trapped inside the burning aircraft before the flames could spread.
Emergency crews had been alerted after the airport tower flagged the aircraft in trouble. The crash on a major highway turned a routine afternoon into a frantic rescue, with witnesses describing the terror of watching people struggle to escape the smoke-filled cabin until help finally arrived.