Kamal Ghorui
The truck driver was confused as the sound of the plane engine grew louder moments before the plane hit the truck near Newark airport.
The chilling dashcam video revealed the exact moments when a United Airlines flight landing at Newark Liberty International Airport hit a streetlight and a tractor-trailer on the nearby highway in a bizarre accident on Sunday. A Boeing 767 was flying from Venice, Italy, to Newark with more than 200 passengers and 10 crew members. The truck driver was hurt but with non-life-threatening injuries and the plane landed normally with no one hurt.CNN reported that a preliminary investigation blamed tire from the plane’s landing gear and the underside of the plane for the accident, as it first collided with a pole and a tractor-trailer. The pole then struck a Jeep.“The driver of the tractor-trailer sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to an area hospital,” New Jersey State Police spokesman SFC Charles Marchan said in a statement.The truck driver, identified as 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.Dashcam video from the truck showed that Boardley was singing seconds before the plane’s landing gear tires struck the truck. The driver was confused as the sound of the plane’s engine grew louder. In the next moment, there were only shards of glass flying.CNN reported that the pilots and air traffic control did not appear to be aware that 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.“The aircraft landed safely, taxied to the gate normally and no passengers or crew were injured,” United said, adding the plane’s crew has been removed from service as part of the investigation.
