New video shows how close United flight came to disaster as wheels skim truck in Newark landing

A new video appears to capture the moment an incoming United Airlines flight clipped a light pole and semi-truck as it landed at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday.

In the video, which has circulated widely on social media but has not been officially confirmed by authorities, United flight 169 can be seen flying in low into Newark, coming perilously close to a passing truck on the New Jersey Turnpike.

“The aircraft landed safely, taxied to the gate normally and no passengers or crew were injured,” United said in a statement when asked by The Independent about the video. “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.”

The Independent has contacted Newark International Airport and the National Transportation Safety Board for comment on the video.

Including the pilots and crew, 231 people were on board at the time of the incident.

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The underside and tire of the jet hit a pole and the truck’s trailer, according to the New Jersey State Police. The pole then hit another car, a Jeep, whose driver was uninjured, the state police said.

The incident left the truck with a hole in its cab and a shattered windshield.

The truck’s driver, Warren Boardley, 39, was in the middle of a bakery delivery to a depot near the airport at the time of the flight.

He was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, including cuts from broken glass, and was later discharged, according to the Port Authority.

After the incident, Boardley was “shaken up and amazed at what happened, and thankful he is still alive,” Chuck Paterakis, the vice president of transport and logistics for H&S Bakery, told The New York Times.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident, with investigators arriving in Newark on Monday.

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“The investigation will examine multiple factors, including flight operations, meteorological conditions, human performance, crew resource management, aircraft performance and air traffic control,” the agency said in a statement.

The crash reportedly may have left a hole in the side of the plane, according to unconfirmed discussion captured on air traffic controller audio.

A preliminary report on the investigation is expected within the next 30 days.

Aviation experts say the approach into Newark is especially complex.

“It’s one of the most challenging approaches in the world,” safety expert Steve Arroyo, a former United pilot, told the Associated Press. “The margin of error is extremely low.”

The plane landed at Runway 29 on Sunday. At 6,726 feet, it is Newark’s shortest.

"This is unacceptable. We have really well-trained pilots. This should never happen in America, but here's what happens though, an incident like this, the big and small incidents, we look at and study and learn from," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an interview with ABC after the incident.

Sunday’s incident at Newark follows a string of recent air disasters, including a runway collision between an Air Canada jet and a truck in March at LaGuardia in New York City that killed two, and a 2025 collision between a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.

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