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An investigation is underway after a United Airlines plane struck a light pole and a truck on the New Jersey Turnpike as it was coming in for a landing at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday afternoon, officials said.
Plane strikes light pole and truck
Dash cam footage from the truck shows the moment it is struck by Flight UA169, a Boeing 767 that originated in Venice, Italy, with 221 passengers and 10 crew members on board.
A frame-by-frame review of the footage shows what appears to be the wheel of the plane outside the driver’s window.
Patrick Oyulu
New Jersey State Police said a preliminary investigation indicated a tire from the plane’s landing gear and “the underside of the plane” hit both the pole and the tractor-trailer. The pole also struck a Jeep traveling on the turnpike, state police said.
The truck was traveling to Smith’s Bakery depot in Newark and was about to exit the turnpike when it was hit, according to Chuck Paterakis, senior vice president of transportation and logistics and co-principal at Baltimore-based H&S Bakery. One of the plane’s landing gear tires went through the truck’s window and windshield, Paterakis told CBS Baltimore.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, identified by Paterakis as Warren Boardley, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and was later released, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. Paterakis said he was treated for injuries resulting from glass in his arm and hand.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating the incident.
Factors that may have contributed to the mishap
Cellphone video appears to show UA169 flying low over the turnpike before landing just after 2 p.m.
“Upon its final approach into Newark International Airport, United flight 169 came into contact with a light pole. The aircraft landed safely, taxied to the gate normally and no passengers or crew were injured. Our maintenance team is evaluating damage to the aircraft and we will investigate how this occurred,” the airline said, in part, in a statement.
The Port Authority said the plane was on its way to Runway 29 when it hit the pole, causing damage to the pole and the tractor-trailer traveling south on the turnpike.
Airport staff inspected the runway for debris and normal operations were quickly resumed, the Port Authority added.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into Sunday’s incident.
“The question investigators are going to want to understand is, how did that happen? Why was the plane too low? Did wind factor into this? Was there a loss of situational awareness in the cockpit? What were the factors that contributed to allowing this airplane to be too low and no one catch it before this happened?” said Kris Van Cleave, CBS News senior transportation correspondent.
“I think the video is pretty remarkable, and the fact that we are talking about everyone surviving this incident is … is pretty remarkable,” Van Cleave added.
This was not the usual landing approach for United Flight 169. The daily Venice flight typically lands on Newark’s longer runways, but because of windy conditions on Sunday, the plane was vectored into Runway 29, the shortest of the three runways at Newark.
The two runways at Newark this flight would typically use are 11,000 feet long and 9,999 feet long, while Runway 29 is just 6,725 feet. The recommended minimum runway distance for a 767-400 is 6000+ feet, so the landing was not unsafe, but it had a smaller margin of error than usual. Runway 29 also has the least buffer between it and the freeways that ring Newark Liberty Airport.
“As a former airline pilot, I would consider this runway to be relatively short, and so I suspect that the pilots wanted to make sure that they were not landing long,” Former NTSB Chair and retired 737 captain Robert Sumwalt told Van Cleave.
Sumwalt also characterized landing on that particular runway as a “difficult approach.”
“It’s not a straight-in approach. You have to come in and circle and to line up with that runway,” he said, noting it also lacks some of the technology the other runways have to help with landings.
“I’m grateful the aircraft landed safely, and all passengers and crew are unharmed,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill wrote, in part, on social media.
“It’s concerning, definitely”
Travelers arriving at Newark Liberty on Sunday night were stunned by the dash cam video.
“I’m so very happy that he’s OK, because that looks absolutely awful,” said Miranda Lee, of Tenafly, New Jersey.
“It is scary. It’s concerning, definitely,” New Jersey resident Sam Immanuel said.
“I fly a lot for work, so I still feel like you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than actually getting hurt in an airplane. But [that’s] a lot. There’s more than I would like to see right now in terms of air travel crashes or accidents happening,” added Peter Marguiles, of Wyckoff, New Jersey.
