A United Airlines Boeing 767-400ER clipped a light pole and a tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike while descending toward Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday afternoon, May 3, 2026. The NTSB has since classified the event as an accident and launched a full federal investigation.
The aircraft — tail number N77066, operating as United Flight 169 from Venice, Italy — was carrying 221 passengers and 10 crew members after roughly 8.5 hours in the air. At approximately 2:00 p.m. ET, the 767 crossed the Turnpike approximately 720 feet short of the Runway 29 threshold. A landing gear tire and the underside of the fuselage struck both a light pole and a northbound tractor-trailer operated by Baker’s Express, hauling Schmidt Bakery products. The severed pole then hit a Jeep traveling on the highway. The plane continued on to the runway and landed safely. No passengers or crew reported injuries.
What Made This Approach Unusually Demanding
Runway 29 is Newark’s shortest — just 6,725 feet, compared to the airport’s primary runways at 11,000 and 9,999 feet. Gusty crosswind conditions Sunday forced controllers to route the flight away from those longer strips. Before the approach, tower advised the crew of winds at 320 degrees, 12 knots gusting to 24 knots. The runway sits less than 400 feet from the Turnpike’s edge and requires a circling approach rather than a straight-in, leaving almost no margin at the approach end.
Former NTSB Chair and retired 737 captain Robert Sumwalt described it as a technically demanding option. “It’s not a straight-in approach. You have to come in and circle and to line up with that runway,” Sumwalt said, noting it also lacks the precision approach aids available on Newark’s primary runways. The 767-400 was tracking at over 160 mph on final — standard for the aircraft type — but flight data reviewed on social media drew scrutiny over the descent rate at low altitude. One aviation commentator described it as a textbook unstable approach.
Aviation expert Kyle Bailey pointed to a possible misjudgment as his primary theory. “My gut feeling is they probably just misjudged that undercarriage, how far below the airplane it actually sits,” Bailey told reporters, also noting that crew fatigue could be an additional factor given that the crew had just completed a transatlantic flight.
On the Ground — and Inside the Truck
Warren Boardley of Baltimore was northbound on the Turnpike, delivering bread products to a Newark airport depot, when the 767’s gear came through his windshield. Dashcam footage from the cab went viral Sunday evening. It shows Boardley singing moments before impact. He sustained cuts to his arm and hand from broken glass, pulled over safely, and is now recovering at home. His father told CNN affiliate WJZ: “Right now, we are blessed to have him. He’s alive.”
Chuck Paterakis, senior vice president of H&S Family of Bakeries, was blunt: “It’s a miracle. It could have been traumatically worse.”
Official Response
United confirmed the strike but said neither passengers nor crew were aware contact had been made. That detail is supported by LiveATC.net recordings — no mention of the strike appears in pilot-to-tower communications after landing.
“Upon its final approach into Newark International Airport, United flight 169 came into contact with a light pole. The aircraft landed safely, taxied to the gate normally and no passengers or crew were injured. Our maintenance team is evaluating damage to the aircraft and we will investigate how this occurred. 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 Airlines
The NTSB formally classified the event as an accident on Monday, May 4, and dispatched an investigator to Newark to interview the flight crew. The agency has directed United to secure the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the incident “unacceptable” on X, adding: “This is unacceptable. We have really well-trained pilots. This should never happen in America. An incident like this, we study and we learn from, and we take action on. That’s why America is the safest place to fly.”
A Pattern Investigators Will Note
Sunday’s event didn’t happen in a vacuum. A United 757 collided with a catering truck at an EWR gate on April 30, injuring a ground worker. Weeks before that, video circulated of a United 777-200ER making an alarming low approach to the same Runway 29. Newark itself remains under a federally mandated cap of 72 combined operations per hour through October 2026 — a measure introduced after repeated equipment failures at the Philadelphia TRACON facility that manages Newark’s airspace remotely. As of August 2025, that facility had just 22 certified controllers against a target of 46.
The NTSB will examine the flight data and voice recorders, crew fatigue, approach stability, and whether stabilized approach criteria were met before the 767 crossed the Turnpike fence line.
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