{"id":710162,"date":"2026-06-17T21:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T21:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/710162\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T21:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T21:17:12","slug":"victim-in-fiery-texas-private-jet-crash-on-highway-idd-as-millionaire-tech-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/710162\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim in fiery Texas private jet crash on highway ID’d as millionaire tech CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

A millionaire tech CEO was killed during the fiery crash-landing of a private plane on a Texas highway<\/a> Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Joshua Baer, the head of tech startup Capital Factory, was one of six passengers onboard the NetJets-operated Cessna Citation Latitude aircraft that burst into flames when it hit a Laredo highway upside down shortly after 10 p.m.<\/p>\n

The crash happened on Texas State Highway Loop 20 near the US-Mexico border after the airport tower reported a private aircraft had a mechanical issue and lost contact with the plane, KGNS News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joshua Baer \u2014 millionaire head of tech startup Capital Factory \u2014 was killed during the fiery crash-landing of a private plane on a Texas highway Tuesday night. Linkedin\/Joshua Baer<\/p>\n

Baer was one of six passengers onboard the NetJets-operated Cessna Citation Latitude aircraft that burst into flames when it hit a Laredo highway upside down shortly after 10 p.m. AP<\/p>\n

The jet had departed San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, around 6:18 p.m. local time and was headed for Austin, Texas, before diverting to Laredo, according to FlightRadar24.<\/p>\n

Police said the aircraft came down on the highway, struck a moving car, shut down traffic in both directions and scattered debris across multiple lanes.<\/p>\n

Business and political leaders in Texas \u2013 where Baer was reportedly hailed as the \u201cGodfather\u201d of Austin\u2019s startup scene \u2013 issued touching tributes to the late 50-year-old father-of-three Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president of Capital Factory, a venture capitalist firm headquartered in Austin, called him a \u201cfearless leader, a brilliant partner and a dear friend to so many of us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are devastated by this unimaginable loss, Josh built an incredibly resilient organization and a deeply capable team,\u201d Bryan Chambers wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapital Factory remains fully operational, and we are completely committed to continuing his mission of backing unstoppable founders,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The jet had departed San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, around 6:18 p.m. local time and was headed for Austin, Texas, before diverting to Laredo, according to FlightRadar24. Zayra Garza via Storyful<\/p>\n

The CEO had also founded a nonprofit dedicated to helping disadvantaged children, the Baer Family Foundation, alongside his wife Amy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn also paid homage to the state icon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh was an innovative & creative leader in Austin\u2019s entrepreneurial culture and a stalwart supporter of growing Central Texas\u2019 military ecosystem,\u201d Cornyn wrote on X. \u201cI and countless others will greatly miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cruz praised Baer as \u201cone of the most significant figures driving innovation and entrepreneurship across America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Texas, he made our state a global leader. His impact was incalculable,\u201d the former governor wrote.<\/p>\n

The FBI and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the disaster, which remains unclear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The five crash survivors, as well as a person from a passing car who was clipped by the plane and five first responders suffering from smoke inhalation were all rushed to a local hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Baer seen with Apple CEO Tim Cook in a photo posted to X on Aug. 25, 2017. X\/@tim_cook<\/p>\n

Baer with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in a photo posted on Feb. 24, 2026. X\/@JoshuaBaer<\/p>\n

Baer posing with Bill Nye and others in a photo posted on Instagram on Sept. 11, 2019. Instagram\/@benlamm<\/p>\n

Devastating dashcam video from the horrific scene reportedly showed the aircraft crushing several street lights as it skidded down the road, before hitting a concrete median and snapping in half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As it became engulfed in flames, another video showed two heroic bystanders \u2013 one armed with a sledgehammer and another with a shovel \u2013 prying the plane\u2019s door open and shattering the cockpit glass in order to free those inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Witness Zayra Garza, who was driving her co-workers home when she came upon the crash, said it \u201clooked like part of a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was worrying me was the fire,\u201d she said, noting, \u201cI was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A millionaire tech CEO was killed during the fiery crash-landing of a private plane on a Texas highway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,9557,26522,451,3,33715,23239,1166,1022,452,453,194],"class_list":["post-710162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-ceos","tag-deaths","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-plane-crashes","tag-private-jets","tag-startups","tag-texas","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}