A United Boeing 767, departing from Venice, hits a pole and a truck as it lands in Newark
We have often talked here on The Flight Club about how airplanes are safe means as well as highly technological. However, of the [...]
We have often talked here on The Flight Club about how safe as well as high-tech aircraft are. However, sometimes the unexpected happens to a series of very unique concauses such as what happened yesterday Sunday, May 3, at Newark Airport.
In this article:
Around 2 p.m., truckers traveling along the New Jersey Turnpike, the tolled highway through New Jersey known to be one of the busiest in the United States, found themselves experiencing something they probably will not easily forget. United Airlines flight UA169, a Boeing 767-400ER just arrived from Venice, was descending toward the runway 29 at Newark Liberty When the trolley hit first a light pole and then a truck from H&S Bakery which was transiting the lane below at the time. Passing so low as to skim the roadway, the truck's wheel smashed through the driver's side window of the vehicle. The truck driver ended up in the hospital with minor injuries and was discharged shortly thereafter. The downed pole also struck a nearby Jeep, fortunately without consequence.
Aboard the plane, 221 passengers and 10 crew members they probably did not even notice: United confirmed that the 767 touched down smoothly and reached the gate without any problems. Damage to the fuselage, according to initial assessments, is said to be minor.
The track that no one wants to use
Track 29 is the one that is almost never used, and it is easy to see why. With its 2,050 meters is the shortest of the three available at Newark, and most importantly it is the one with the least space between the threshold and the roads surrounding the airport: the turnpike passes less than 120 meters from the beginning of the runway.
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Windy conditions yesterday afternoon forced controllers to divert our flight from Venice, which normally descends on one of the two main runways. According to data from Flightradar24, the 767 was traveling at over 160 mph when it flew over the roadway. A former 737 pilot interviewed about the case by CBS explained that on such a runway, pilots instinctively tend to land as close to the threshold as possible, thus risking a lower-than-usual approach.
Now it's the NTSB's turn
The dashcam mounted on the truck caught everything, and the video It is obviously going around everywhere. United took the crew off duty as per standard procedures and launched an internal investigation. The NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board U.S. federal agency that investigates all transportation accidents in the U.S. has done the same, and will be analyzing the cabin voice recorder and flight data recorder in the coming weeks to figure out exactly how it was possible for an airliner to end up so low that it touched road infrastructure during a normal approach procedure.
