What looked like a car wreck on a dark Texas highway turned out to be a plane crash, and drivers who came upon it ran toward the fire.
Several motorists stopped to help after a Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet crashed late Tuesday night in Laredo, Texas, while trying to make an emergency landing, authorities said. Police also arrived quickly, and officials said the combined effort helped people escape as smoke filled the cabin.
Ivan Franco, a 23-year-old from Laredo, was driving a tow truck when he saw the wreckage. He grabbed a sledgehammer and three fire extinguishers from his rescue kit and handed the extinguishers to police officers.
“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.”
Laredo Police Chief Mike Rodriguez praised the civilians, officers and firefighters who responded.
“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,” Rodriguez said at a news conference on Wednesday. He said he asked his staff to track down all the civilians who helped.
The FAA said the plane had departed Tuesday evening from San José del Cabo, Mexico, and was headed to Austin, Texas. The jet was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that allows people to buy part ownership in private jets. NetJets said it was cooperating with authorities.
Authorities said the crash happened after the pilots reported mechanical problems while requesting an emergency landing at a nearby airport. The fuselage came to rest across a concrete barrier, and the tail broke off and fell to a lower section of roadway.
While one person was tragically killed, three teenage passengers and two pilots survived. A person in a truck hit by the plane also survived.
Investigators searched the wreckage on Wednesday for clues about the cause.
Among the motorists who stopped was Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she saw the wreckage. She recorded video while her husband ran to help.
“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” Garza said.
She said the fire worried her most. “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”
Garza said she saw people get out of their cars and try to smash the cockpit glass. Her video shows the aircraft door opening slightly from inside as a voice cries, “Help! Help! Help!” Rescuers then pull the door farther open as three teenagers get out, followed by one pilot and then the other.
Franco swung the sledgehammer in heavy smoke. Others struck the window with a shovel and tools from their own vehicles. The cockpit glass cracked but did not give way.
“They are basically bulletproof,” said retired airline pilot John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems.
Police officers tried to remove the last person inside, Baer, as the smoke thickened. Officers bent over coughing after pulling back from the smoke. Firefighters wearing oxygen masks were later able to get inside.
Firefighters also removed a dog from the plane that was suffering from smoke inhalation. The dog was handed over to animal control and was expected to survive, said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department.
Baeza said five officers were treated for smoke inhalation. The five people who survived the crash were later released from a hospital.
As the plane crashed on the northbound lanes of the highway, its wing hit a truck traveling southbound. The truck driver survived, Baeza said.
Mayor Victor Treviño said it was “nothing short of a miracle that this tragedy did not become a mass fatality event,” citing the late hour of the crash and the quick response by first responders.
Franco said fear never left him as he tried to help.
“You’re in constant fear,” he said. “You don’t know what situation you’re in.”
Read more from ABC News.
