United jet strikes truck on Newark approach, no passengers injured

A United Airlines jet came down over the New Jersey Turnpike, clipped a light pole and a tractor-trailer, and still landed safely at Newark Liberty International Airport with 231 people on board uninjured, turning a startling near-miss into a test of how well the airport separates aircraft from highway traffic.

United Flight 169, a Boeing 767 arriving from Venice, Italy, was on final approach to Runway 29 around 2 p.m. Sunday when it struck a light pole over the turnpike and hit a southbound tractor-trailer. No passengers or crew members were hurt in the landing, but the truck driver, Warren Boardley, suffered minor injuries from glass in his arm and hand and was later released from the hospital.

The truck was carrying bakery products from Schmidt Bakery in Baltimore to a distribution center near Newark Airport. The pole also struck a Jeep traveling on the turnpike, and no one inside that vehicle was injured. The sequence of impacts, with a commercial jet descending into the airspace above one of the region’s busiest highways, is now at the center of federal review.

New Jersey State Police said the tire from the plane’s landing gear and the underside of the aircraft hit both the pole and the tractor-trailer. CBS News reported that the aircraft was traveling about 160 mph, and frame-by-frame review of dashcam video showed a wheel visible outside the driver’s window just before impact.

United said it would conduct a rigorous safety inspection and removed the entire crew from service while the incident is investigated. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are reviewing the case, and the NTSB has said it believes the strike was accidental.

The incident adds another layer of scrutiny to Newark operations, where delays, runway construction, equipment problems and an FAA interim order limiting arrivals and departures have already placed the airport under unusual pressure. The question now is not only how a plane and a truck came within feet of each other over the Turnpike, but whether Newark’s traffic flows, runway constraints and approach protections are keeping pace with the demands of a major international hub.