Driver injured after truck was struck by United plane landing at Newark airport

The driver of a delivery truck emerged with only minor injuries after his tractor trailer was struck by a passenger jet landing in New Jersey’s busy Newark airport on Sunday afternoon, officials said.

New Jersey state police said a landing tire and the underside of a United Airlines plane arriving from Venice, Italy, hit the truck in question. The Boeing 767 aircraft also clipped a light pole, which in turn struck a Jeep.

Only the delivery truck driver, identified as Warren Boardley, was injured – with what were described as cuts from broken glass to his arm and forearm. He was treated at a hospital and discharged, according to the airport’s operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Boardley’s name was released to various news media outlets by Chuck Paterakis, the vice-president of transportation for Schmidt Bakery and owner of H&S Family of Bakeries in Baltimore. Paterakis said Boardley was on the New Jersey Turnpike driving an H&S truck loaded with bread products to a depot at the Newark airport when Sunday’s collision occurred.

A dashboard camera video in the H&S truck captured the moment of impact and circulated widely on social media. In the footage, the driver can be heard singing to himself, placing his cellphone on the left-hand side of the dashboard and twice glancing to his right in evident alarm.

There is then a loud screech and the sounds of a crash as glass shards and other debris abruptly fill the frame. Boardley subsequently managed to pull over and call his employer, as New York’s WABC television station reported.

“Everybody – the driver and everybody on the plane – should be very fortunate,” Paterakis told the outlet after it became clear Boardley had non-life threatening injuries and no one else was reported hurt. “Because it could have been the opposite of what happened, and a little help from God went a long way tonight for everybody on the plane, and including the driver.”

Planes aiming for one of the Newark airport’s main runways have to sail low over multiple lanes of traffic on the turnpike, which is a part of Interstate 95 that is typically congested with motorists. The runway is just past the edge of the highway.

Officials with the port authority said only minor damage to the plane involved in Sunday’s mishap – United Flight 169 – was observed after it landed safely. Normal operations at the airport quickly resumed after airport staff inspected the runway for debris.

United, meanwhile, said its maintenance team had started evaluating the damage to the aircraft. The airline said it also removed the crew from service as it conducted a “rigorous” flight safety investigation.