One person has been killed and five others on board escaped after a small passenger plane crashed and burst into flames on a Texas highway, with bystanders launching a desperate rescue attempt to pull survivors from the burning wreckage.
The aircraft came down on Texas State Highway Loop 20 in Laredo at around 10pm on Tuesday, according to Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department. Witnesses had earlier reported seeing the plane falling from the sky over Highway 59 already on fire, according to KIITV.
Footage shared online showed the small aircraft lying upside down with flames bursting from its underbelly and thick black smoke filling the air, as first responders and bystanders tried frantically to break open the windshield to free those trapped inside. Video then shows two men stepping out of the wreckage as others managed to open a door.
The footage was captured by Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she came upon the scene. She said she began filming as she approached, pulling her vehicle over across from the burning plane. “She saw someone inside the plane trying to break the cockpit window to escape,” KIITV reported. People began getting out of their vehicles to try to smash the window from the outside.
Six people were on board at the time of the crash. One was killed and the investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing. The northbound and southbound lanes of Loop 20 remain closed as emergency services work to clear the scene.
