A prominent Texas technology entrepreneur was killed when a private jet operated by NetJets crashed onto a highway near Laredo, Texas, after the crew reportedly declared a fuel emergency.

Joshua Baer, 50, founder of Austin, Texas-based venture capital firm Capital Factory, died in the late Tuesday crash, according to CNBC.

Five others aboard the aircraft — including two pilots and three teenage passengers — survived, according to reports from the scene.

Authorities say the Cessna Citation Latitude was flying from San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, to Austin when the pilots reported low fuel and requested an emergency landing at Laredo International Airport.

Videos and eyewitness accounts showed bystanders rushing to help pull survivors from the wreckage after the aircraft came down near a busy roadway.

Laredo Mayor Victor Trevino stressed that the tragedy could have been far worse.

"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," Trevino told reporters.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

NetJets, the private aviation company owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, declined to speculate on what may have caused the aircraft to go down.

In a statement, the company said, "Our immediate concern is for the well-being of our Crewmembers, our passengers, and their families during this time. NetJets cannot comment further and will not speculate on the cause of this accident."

Jeff Guzzetti, a former investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press that the aircraft's final moments suggest the crew may have been attempting to glide to the airport after losing power from both engines.

"I think they just ran out of altitude and airspeed toward the end there," Guzzetti said.

Questions remain about how the jet could have encountered a fuel-related emergency.

Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the U.S. Transportation Department, told the AP that a fuel leak may have been involved, noting that the Citation Latitude's roughly 3,000-mile range is about three times longer than the planned route from Mexico to Texas.

Federal investigators have recovered the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

The NTSB said both devices are being transported to Washington for analysis as investigators work to determine what led to the deadly crash.

The accident is believed to be the first fatal crash involving NetJets and the first fatal accident tied to the fractional private-jet ownership model the company pioneered before Berkshire Hathaway acquired it in 1998.