(AP) – Investigators combed through wreckage Wednesday for clues to why a business jet crashed on a Texas highway, killing one person on board after its pilots reported mechanical problems while requesting an emergency landing at a nearby airport.

The fiery crash late Tuesday in Laredo near the Mexican border sent bystanders racing from their cars to help police rescue passengers and crew from the burning aircraft. The crash killed Joshua Baer, a leader in Texas’ technology and startup sectors, the president of Baer’s company told the Austin American-Statesman.

Video from the frantic scene showed someone trying to smash the cockpit glass with a sledgehammer, while others used makeshift levers as they worked to open the plane’s door. Local officials said a firefighter entered the smoke-filled jet to extract one person still inside after the rest had escaped.

“While the loss of life is deeply regrettable, it is nothing short of a miracle that this tragedy did not become a mass fatality event,” Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño told a news conference Wednesday.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The Federal Aviation Administration was investigating along with the National Transportation Board.

Laredo Police Chief Miguel Rodriguez Jr. said investigators working to reconstruct the crash were at the crash site Wednesday.

Crash victim worked to help entrepreneurs launch startups

Baer was the founder and chief executive of Austin-based Capital Factory, which helps entrepreneurs connect with investors and others to launch their businesses.

“Joshua was a fearless leader, a brilliant partner, and a dear friend to so many of us,” Capital Factory President Bryan Chambers told the Austin newspaper.

Capital Factory executives did not immediately return phone messages Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Baer lived in Austin with his wife and three children, according to his LinkedIn page. He recently taught a student entrepreneur class at the University of Texas at Austin.

“I help people quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs,” Baer said on his LinkedIn page.

In a social media post, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called Baer “one of the most significant figures driving innovation and entrepreneurship across America.”

Police did not release the name of the person killed, citing a request from family members. Rodriguez said those on the plane included two pilots and three teenagers.

Pilots reported low fuel, electrical issues, airport director says

The Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet departed Tuesday evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was bound for Austin, Texas, the FAA said in a statement.

The plane was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that lets people buy part ownership in private jets. NetJets said in a statement it was cooperating with authorities.

The jet went down at about 10 p.m. Tuesday on the Loop 20 highway, just a few minutes after its pilots radioed the local airport seeking to make an emergency landing. Their call to air traffic controllers “mentioned low fuel and a power outage,” Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez said.

“They had mechanical issues and they lost communication with the tower,” Sanchez said Wednesday, “and that’s when the accident happened.”

Dashcam video posted on social media showed the aircraft careening down the highway and knocking down a light post before coming to a stop near the airport. The jet also barreled into a car, sending one motorist to a hospital in stable condition, said Laredo police investigator Jose Baeza.

Video posted to social media showed the plane on its side, smashed into a highway barrier with the tail ripped from the fuselage.

“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” said Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she came upon the crash.

Garza, who shot video of the scene as her husband ran to help, saw motorists leave their cars to try to help smash the cockpit glass. She said the plane’s door opened and three people who looked like teenagers rushed out, followed by someone who appeared to be a pilot. Another crew member tried to pull out a person who seemed to be unconscious.

Smoke billowed from the plane as a firefighter climbed into the aircraft to rescue the remaining passenger. Police officers helping prop open the door had to back away as they doubled over coughing because of the intense smoke. Police said five officers were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.

“What was worrying me was the fire,” Garza said. “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”

This was the third significant aviation accident in as many days. A B-52 crashed Monday during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard, while on Sunday, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.

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Golden reported from Seattle; Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut; and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. AP journalists Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

AUSTIN, Texas – The Austin Police Department is investigating a homicide in Southeast Austin.

Police said this is Austin’s 28th homicide of the year.

What we know:

Police said on June 16, around 3:11 p.m., the 911 call center received a check welfare call for a husband and wife. 

At 6:20 p.m., officers responded to the 4700 block of Oltorf Street in reference to the call. 

When officers arrived at the home, they tried to enter, but an aggressive animal delayed their entry. Once the dog was detained, officers entered the home. 

They found a man and woman injured. Both were later pronounced dead at the scene.

What we don’t know:

Police did not provide any information on a weapon used at the scene. 

This is an ongoing investigation.

If anyone has any information, contact the Austin Police Department’s homicide tipline at 512-477-3588.

This is a developing story, refresh for the latest updates

Austin Independent School District students scored above the state average in most courses, according to preliminary results from the 2026 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, released by the Texas Education Agency on Tuesday.

Austin students in grades third through eighth are scoring above the state averages in reading, math and social sciences, and in some cases even surpassing pre-pandemic levels. But AISD is falling behind when it comes to students who took the tests in Spanish and in seventh grade math, where students are way behind the state average.

An Austin ISD spokesperson said the positive growth is a result of the district’s additional “academic supports and strategic staffing.” They also acknowledged that there are “areas of improvement.”

“Austin ISD will continue to invest into our campuses that need additional academic support, including putting highly-effective teachers and curriculum support with the students who need them most,” district officials said in a written statement.

Education Commissioner Mike Morath said state officials are “encouraged” by the continued statewide gain in math, with more students succeeding in advanced math courses.

“The gains in middle school reading are also notable, as it may be associated with the statewide ban on the use of cellphones in schools,” Morath said.

Reading

Statewide results show third graders were the only students to have a decline in reading scores compared to last year, dropping just one percentage point. But in Austin ISD, the percentage of third grade students who met grade level for reading increased one point compared to last year, going from 58% to 59%, and eight points compared to pre-pandemic levels (51%). Third grade reading is one of the only tests where students have done better than in 2019 before scores dropped during the pandemic. The percentage of AISD third grade students who meet expectations on reading is also above state average — 59% compared to 51%.

However, AISD third graders who took the reading test in Spanish were less likely to meet expectations and scored eight percentage points below the state average of 28%. A similar trend can be seen in fourth grade, where only 12% of AISD students who took the reading test in Spanish are meeting grade level, compared to 29% of Spanish speaking students across the state.

Fifth grade Spanish speaking AISD students have the biggest gap compared to their English speaking and statewide Spanish speaking peers. Nineteen percent of AISD students who took the test in Spanish met grade level, compared to 35% of Texas Spanish speaking students.

Statewide, seventh graders who met grade level for reading improved from 52% to 54%. Eighth graders saw the biggest increase going from 56% to 59%. Those trends were similar for Austin ISD students, who are also scoring above the state average.

Math

The percentage of third grade AISD students who have met grade level on math is 46%. That’s not back to pre-pandemic levels, but it is two points above state average. The percentage of AISD third graders failing in math is still higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Fourth grade Austin ISD students have been making gains in math, with 52% meeting state standards. That’s higher than the passing total before the pandemic. However, the percentage of AISD students who do not meet standards — 33% — is still nine percentage points higher than 2019.

Austin ISD students in third and fourth grade who took the math test in Spanish are falling behind their statewide and English speaking peers. Only 8% of third graders in Austin who took the test in Spanish meet grade levels in math compared to 28% of their Spanish speaking statewide peers. That percentage is 12% for Spanish speaking fourth graders in Austin, compared to 29% statewide.

Fifty-one percent of Austin ISD fifth graders meet grade levels in math, scoring above state average. For sixth grade, that trend reverses, with Austin ISD students (37%) scoring below the state (39%) on the percentage of students who meet grade level.

Overall, the state saw a decline in seventh grade math, which they attributed to more seventh graders taking the eighth grade math test than ever before. Austin ISD seventh graders are scoring way below the state average when it comes to math. Only 15% of AISD seventh grade students meet grade level compared to 28% of Texas students.

Students can only take the STAAR test in Spanish through fifth grade.

Social studies and science

Austin ISD eighth graders are doing better in social studies compared to the state average. Forty-one percent of AISD students meet grade level compared to 32% across Texas. Austin students are also hitting state standards at a higher percentage than they did before the pandemic in 2020.

The state recently updated the science curriculum for fifth and eighth grade. The TEA has said they are working on standardizing the results compared to last year, which will take over a month. The TEA said results on how fifth and eighth grade students did on science will be released on July 31.

Austin ISD middle schools

The state is expected to release letter grades for each campus in August, but the STAAR scores help calculate those results. Currently, Austin ISD is waiting to know the results for Burnet, Dobie and Webb middle schools. Each has received four failing grades in a row.

Those schools improved in math and reading, but are still falling behind on meeting grade levels. If one of those schools receives a third failing grade, the state could take over the whole district.

Families can access individual results on the TEA’s website or on Austin ISD’s portal.