NEWARK, N.J. — Planes landing and taking off over highways seem to get close, really close to the vehicles they’re flying over.
In Newark, New Jersey, a plane landing from Venice, Italy, clipped a bakery truck and a light pole as it landed.
United Airlines Flight 169 landed safely with what was called minor damage. The bakery truck’s driver, who was traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike near the airport, was sent to a hospital for minor injuries, KABC and CNN reported.
The plane, with 221 passengers and 10 crew members, landed on runway 29, which starts less than 400 feet from the edge of the turnpike and taxied to the gate normally, according to CNN. No injuries were reported on board.
Witness Patrick Oyulu, who was driving when he saw the tire hit the truck, said he saw the plane, then felt a huge gust of wind.
“It was just coming directly in front of the truck … I just saw smoke and debris,” he said. “I think (the truck was) trying to evasively maneuver out of its way or something, but they were cornered.”
CNN reported that it did not appear that the pilots or the air traffic control knew what happened, according to recordings shared by LiveATC.net.
Later in the recording, air traffic controllers reported “a hole in the side of the airplane” to an operations vehicle about half an hour after landing. The vehicle was sent to inspect the runway, CNN reported.
“Our maintenance team is evaluating damage to the aircraft and we will investigate how this occurred,” United Airlines said in a statement to KABC. “We will conduct a rigorous flight safety investigation into the incident and our crew has been removed from service as part of the process.”
Caught on video
The moment of impact was captured on the truck’s camera inside its cab.
The plane was going more than 160 mph when it hit the truck, CNN reported.
“The driver experienced a commercial plane’s tires landing on the tractor or brushing the top of the tractor,” Chuck Paterakis, vice president of Schmidt Bakery. He said the truck was owned by Baker’s Express and was en route to deliver items to an airport depot at the time.
New Jersey State Police spokesperson, SFC Charles Marchan, said preliminary investigations show that the tire of the plane’s landing gear and the underside of the plane “collided with a pole and a tractor-trailer. The pole then struck a Jeep,” CNN reported.
Truck driver Warren Boardley, from Baltimore, was able to pull over to the side of the road, report the incident, and contact his employer. He suffered cuts to his arm and forearm from broken glass and was treated and released.
The trailer and the bread inside were not damaged.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. A preliminary report is expected in the next 30 days, The Associated Press reported.
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