On Sunday, just outside Newark Liberty International Airport, a truck driver from Baltimore had the kind of day you definitely don’t plan for. A United Airlines flight coming in hot from Venice ended up clipping his truck as it came in for landing!
The flight, United Flight 169, was carrying over 200 passengers and crew when things got a little too close for comfort. The aircraft, a Boeing 767, was reportedly pushing over 160 mph as it crossed above the New Jersey Turnpike.
Everything seemed routine… until it wasn’t.
According to early reports, part of the landing gear and the underside of the plane made contact with objects on the ground, including a streetlight and a tractor-trailer. While no one of the flight was injured, New Jersey State Police spokesman Charles Marchan broke it down, saying: “The driver of the tractor-trailer sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to an area hospital.”
More On The Driver:
Video captured the moment the driver, Warren Boardley, was just doing his job, heading north to drop off bread deliveries near the airport before the incident. Dashcam footage shows the moment the engine noise gets louder and louder, then boom, the landing gear hits the truck. The impact shook the whole vehicle and sent glass flying everywhere. You can only imagine how crazy that must’ve felt in real time.
Boardley ended up with cuts on his arm from the shattered glass but thankfully avoided anything life-threatening. He even managed to pull over safely afterward, which says a lot about his composure in a moment like that.
What happens next
Now the National Transportation Safety Board is stepping in to figure out exactly how this even happened. They’re sending an investigator to Newark and will be reviewing both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data.