Newark Airport Delivery Truck Driver Survives Scary Collision With Landing United Jet

A delivery truck driver escaped with minor injuries after a United Airlines passenger jet struck his tractor trailer while landing at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday afternoon, officials said. The driver, Warren Boardley, suffered cuts to his arm and forearm from broken glass, was treated at a hospital, and released later that day, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The Boeing 767, arriving from Venice, Italy, hit the truck with its landing tire and underside as it came in for a landing. The aircraft also clipped a light pole, which then struck a Jeep. No other injuries were reported.

Boardley, who works for H&S Family of Bakeries in Baltimore, was driving a truck loaded with bread products to a depot at the airport when the collision happened. Dashcam footage from his truck, which spread quickly on social media, shows him singing, placing his phone on the dashboard, and glancing nervously to the right before a loud screech and crash as glass and debris fill the frame. He managed to pull over and call his employer.

Chuck Paterakis, vice-president of transportation for Schmidt Bakery and owner of H&S, told local media: “Everybody should be very fortunate. Because it could have been the opposite.”

The airport’s main runway sits just past the edge of the New Jersey Turnpike, a heavily traveled stretch of I-95 where planes often pass low over traffic. Port Authority officials said the plane sustained only minor damage and landed safely. Normal operations resumed after crews cleared the runway of debris.

United Airlines removed the flight crew from service and began evaluating the aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation and will examine the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders.

This incident comes a little more than a month after a landing Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing two pilots and injuring over 40 people, and about 14 months after a mid-air collision near Washington D.C. killed more than 60 people.