United flight collides with truck and light pole as it lands at Newark airport

(CNN) — A United Airlines flight landing at Newark Liberty International Airport hit a streetlight and a tractor-trailer on the nearby highway on Sunday, injuring the truck’s driver, according to the New Jersey State Police.

United Flight 169 was arriving from Venice, Italy, carrying more than 200 passengers and 10 crew members. The plane, a Boeing 767, was going more than 160 miles an hour when it crossed over the New Jersey Turnpike, just outside of the airport, according to flight tracking site Flightradar24.

No one on board the flight was hurt, and the plane landed normally, United said in a statement.

A preliminary investigation shows a tire from 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,” New Jersey State Police spokesman SFC Charles Marchan said in a statement. “The driver of the tractor-trailer sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to an area hospital.”

Dashcam captures sudden strike

Dashcam video from the truck showed the driver traveling along the road as the sound of the plane’s engines grew louder. Suddenly, the plane’s landing gear tires struck the truck, shaking it and sending shards of glass flying.

The truck driver, Warren Boardley of Baltimore, was heading north on the turnpike to deliver bread products to a Newark airport depot when the incident occurred, Chuck Paterakis, senior vice president of transportation for Schmidt Bakery and co-owner of H&S Family of Bakeries, told CNN.

Boardley sustained cuts to his arm from broken glass but did not suffer serious injuries and was able to pull over safely, according to Paterakis, who added Boardley was expected to be released from the hospital later Sunday.

A ‘miraculous’ sight

Steve Kohnenkamp was on his way home from a coin show in New Jersey when he says he saw the plane come eerily close to the highway.

“I was like, ‘I think I just survived something that was really, really miraculous,’” Kohnenkamp told CNN. “Another two or three feet lower – I would have been toast.”

A Staten Island resident who drives past the Newark airport often, Kohnenkamp estimates the plane came within 100 feet of his car.

A cascade of dust and the smell of burned rubber filled the air, according to Kohnenkamp, who said the incident was “one of the craziest” things he had seen on the New Jersey Turnpike.

“And that says a lot,” he added.

Another witness, Patrick Oyulu, was driving on the low-flying highway when he saw the low flying plane and felt a huge gust of wind go over him.

“It was just coming directly in front of the truck … I just saw smoke and debris,” he told CNN. “I think (the truck was) trying to evasively maneuver out of its way or something, but they were cornered.”

The investigation continues

The pilots and air traffic control did not appear to be aware the plane had struck the light pole upon landing, according to recordings of air traffic control communications captured by LiveATC.net.

The 767 was given instructions to taxi to the gate as other aircraft continued to land on the same runway.

Air traffic controllers reported “a hole in the side of the airplane” to an operations vehicle preparing to inspect the runway about half an hour after the landing, according to another recording from LiveATC.net.

When asked about air traffic control recording, United told CNN its maintenance team was evaluating damage to the aircraft and promised “a rigorous flight safety investigation into the incident.”

“The aircraft landed safely, taxied to the gate normally and no passengers or crew were injured,” United said, noting the plane’s crew has been removed from service as part of the investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board classified the crash as an accident due to the “extent of damage to the airplane.”

An investigator traveled to Newark Monday morning to interview the flight crew, the NTSB said. It will analyze the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, as well as review flight operations, weather, human performance, crew management, aircraft performance and air traffic control.

Runway 29, where the plane landed, starts less than 400 feet from the edge of the busy New Jersey Turnpike. It is not always used, but when wind conditions are right, it can see numerous landings, which can startle drivers as planes pass at low altitudes over the highway.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Amanda Musa, Bonney Kapp, Jim Rogers and Sneha Dhandapani contributed to this report.