A United Airlines plane with 231 people on board found itself in a dangerous situation Sunday afternoon while landing at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The Boeing 767, which had arrived from Venice, caught a lamp post and a truck on the adjacent highway with its wheel and lower fuselage during final approach. Despite the dramatic circumstances, the pilots managed to land safely shortly after 2 p.m. local time (midnight CET).
- A United Airlines Boeing 767 hit a light pole while landing in New Jersey.
- The plane intercepted a semi-truck and damaged a Jeep passenger vehicle.
- Despite the collision with the objects, the plane landed safely without injuries to the passengers and crew.
- The truck driver suffered minor injuries and was briefly hospitalized.
- United Airlines and the US FAA launched an investigation into the circumstances of this dangerous incident.
According to the preliminary findings of the police in New Jersey, the plane crashed into a semi-trailer truck belonging to the bakery company H&S Bakery. The street light pole that was hit by the plane fell on a Jeep car that was traveling on the highway at the time. Fortunately, no injuries were reported aboard Flight 169, which had 221 passengers and ten crew members.
Crash on the highway
The driver of the truck suffered minor injuries and was taken to the hospital, where he was released for home treatment after treatment. The crew of the aircraft, which was on duty at the time of the incident, was temporarily put out of service, which is standard procedure in the investigation of similar events.
United Airlines has announced that it has launched an internal investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the incident. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also launched an investigation, focusing on possible causes that could have led to the aircraft striking objects outside the runway during a landing maneuver.
Landing safely despite the risk
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees shipping in the region, said in a statement that the situation could have ended much worse if the crew had not handled the landing so professionally. But the incident raises questions about the safety of air traffic near highways and whether all regulations regarding the plane’s height and trajectory during landing were followed.
Both United Airlines and the FAA promised that the results of the investigation would be made public to prevent similar situations in the future.
