New footage shows United jet striking truck near Newark runway

Newly released camera footage shows a United Airlines jet striking a bakery truck as it landed at Newark Liberty International Airport, injuring the driver but leaving everyone aboard the plane unharmed.

The video, shared on X, shows United 169 coming in low over the New Jersey Turnpike as it approached Runway 29. The plane’s landing gear appears to have hit the top of a tractor-trailer, pushing the trailer into a concrete barrier. The aircraft also struck a lamp pole during the landing attempt.

Footage from a dash camera inside the truck cab shows the driver being jolted by the impact, with the cab shaking sharply. The driver survived and suffered only minimal injuries, according to the report. None of the 231 people aboard the United flight was hurt.

The plane had been attempting a visual landing on Runway 29, an approach known among pilots as the “Stadium Visual Rwy 29.” The maneuver requires pilots to guide the aircraft by sight and is considered challenging because of the runway’s short length, nonstandard guidance lights, cross-traffic with other runways, crosswinds and other factors.

Eric Wydra, director of the University of Oklahoma School of Aviation, said the runway is not commonly used because of those complications.

“I understand why at Newark they don’t use that runway a lot,” he told The Post.

The Post reported that it obtained dozens of pilot complaints about the approach through the FAA’s anonymous Aviation Safety Reporting System. One pilot described the difficulty of lining up with the runway while also monitoring air traffic communications and nearby aircraft.

“We were … listening to the Air Traffic Control chatter and also trying to follow the aircraft in front of us and find the runway, which was very difficult to see with all the lights coming from that direction,” the pilot wrote.

Experts said the approach leaves little room for error, especially if a plane undershoots the initial 70-degree turn toward the runway. That appears to be what United 169 may have done.

“If you undershoot it, then you’re out there in the Wild West,” said Robert Joslin, the former FAA’s chief scientific and technical advisor.

Still, both Wydra and Joslin said the approach can be performed safely when pilots and air traffic control closely follow procedures.

“It is a difficult approach, but you have one of two choices: either move that runway or move the turnpike, which isn’t going to happen,” Wydra said.