The truck driver felt confused as the sound of the plane’s engine rose moments before the plane collided with the truck near Newark Airport.
Terrifying video captured by a dashcam revealed the exact moments when a United Airlines plane landing at Newark Liberty International Airport collided with a street lamp and a tractor trailer on the nearby highway in a freak accident Sunday.
The Boeing 767 was flying from Venice, Italy, to Newark, carrying more than 200 passengers and 10 crew members. The truck driver was injured, but not life-threatening, and the plane landed normally without anyone being injured.CNN reported that a preliminary investigation blamed a tire on the plane’s landing gear and the underside of the plane for the accident, as it first struck a pole and a trailer. The pole then hit a jeep.
“The tractor-trailer driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to an area hospital,” New Jersey State Police spokesman Charles Marchand said in a statement.The truck driver, identified as Warren Bordley of Baltimore, was northbound on the main road delivering baking products to a Newark Airport warehouse when the accident occurred, Chuck Paterakis, senior vice president of transportation at Schmidt’s Bakery and co-owner of H&S Bakery Group, told CNN.
Dashcam video from the truck showed Bordley singing seconds before the plane’s landing gear tires hit the truck. The driver was confused when the plane’s engine became louder. In the next moment, there were only flying shards of glass.CNN reported that the pilots and air traffic control were apparently unaware that the plane hit the light pole as it landed, according to recordings of air traffic control communications captured by LiveATC.net. The 767 was instructed to taxi to the gate while the other planes continued to land on the same runway. Air traffic controllers reported a “hole in the side of the plane” to an operations vehicle preparing to inspect the runway about a half-hour after landing, according to another recording from LiveATC.net.“The plane landed safely, proceeded to the gate normally, and no passengers or crew were injured,” United said, adding that the cabin crew had been taken out of service as part of the investigation.
