A small passenger plane crash-landed Tuesday night near Loop 20 and Saunders Street in Laredo, prompting police to shut down traffic and send emergency crews to the scene near the Texas Department of Public Safety office.
The crash was reported at about 10 p.m., and authorities said both northbound and southbound lanes of Loop 20 were closed near the Saunders Street and Clark Boulevard area while responders worked the incident. Laredo police said the information was still preliminary and that no immediate details on injuries or the circumstances of the crash were available.
A video released by the Laredo Police Department showed an officer saying the crash site was right by the train tracks and that victims had been pulled out of the plane. The officer said the people taken out were alive and that it did not appear there were injuries on the ground from the crash.
Texas Department of Transportation warned drivers to expect delays through the area and said the crash was reported in the vicinity of US 59 Loop, also known as SL 20, and BU-59Z, or Saunders Street. Police asked motorists to avoid the area and take alternate routes until further notice.
The cause of the crash remained unknown Tuesday night. The officer at the scene said the aircraft was a small passenger plane, and police said the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration would conduct their own investigations.
A Facebook post identified the aircraft as a Cessna Citation Latitude and said it had been traveling to Austin from San Jose Del Cabo before diverting to Laredo. A Citation Latitude can typically carry eight to nine passengers, but officials had not confirmed the aircraft type or any passenger count. The next major step is the federal investigation, which will determine why the plane came down near one of the city’s busiest roadway corridors.
