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A plane landing at Newark Liberty International Airport hit a streetlight and a tractor-trailer on the nearby highway on Sunday, injuring the truck’s driver, according to the New Jersey State Police.
The United Airlines Boeing 767, flying from Venice, Italy, was going more than 160 miles an hour when it crossed over the New Jersey Turnpike, just outside of the airport, according to flight tracking site Flightradar24.
A preliminary investigation shows a tire from the plane’s landing gear and the underside of the plane “collided with a pole and a tractor-trailer. The pole then struck a Jeep,” New Jersey State Police spokesman SFC Charles Marchan said in a statement. “The driver of the tractor-trailer sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was
transported to an area hospital.”
JUST IN: Baltimore bakery truck struck by a United Airlines plane coming in for a landing at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
According to local reports, the plane was a United Airlines Boeing 767-400.
Senior vice president of Transportation & Logistics at… pic.twitter.com/Ckm5jH6FOq
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Patrick Oyulu was driving on the highway when he saw the low flying plane and felt a huge gust of wind go over him.
“It was just coming directly in front of the truck … I just saw smoke and debris,” he told CNN. “I think (the truck was) trying to evasively maneuver out of its way or something, but they were cornered.”
More than 200 passengers and 10 crew members were on board the plane, the airline said.
“The aircraft landed safely, taxied to the gate normally and no passengers or crew were injured,” United said in a statement. “Our maintenance team is evaluating damage to the aircraft.”
“We will conduct a rigorous flight safety investigation into the incident and our crew has been removed from service as part of the process,” United said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigator to Newark and will analyze the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder as part of their investigation, the agency announced.
A United Airlines Boeing 777 performing a low approach over a New Jersey highway while landing on Runway 29 at Newark Liberty International Airport. pic.twitter.com/3pc4AK6Bl2
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Runway 29, where the plane landed, starts less than 400 feet from the edge of the busy New Jersey Turnpike. It is not always used, but when wind conditions are right, it can see numerous landings, which can startle drivers as planes pass at low altitudes over the highway.
The pilots and air traffic control did not appear to be aware 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.
