A dramatic Sunday afternoon at Newark Liberty International Airport turned into something nobody on the ground could have predicted: a commercial airliner making contact with a bakery truck on one of the busiest highways in the country. Cellphone video captured the surreal moment, and it is the kind of footage that makes you want to put your phone down and take a long walk.
United Airlines Flight 169, a Boeing 767 that had originated in Venice, Italy, was on its final approach to Newark when things went sideways, literally. The plane flew low over the New Jersey Turnpike around 2 p.m. and, during that descent, its landing gear made contact with a light pole. That pole then reportedly struck a Jeep traveling on the highway, according to New Jersey State Police. It was a chain reaction of aviation chaos that no traffic report could have prepared drivers for.
Then there was the bakery truck. Warren Boardley, a driver from the Baltimore area working for H&S Bakery, was hauling goods to a Schmidt bakery depot in Newark and was about to exit the turnpike when the plane essentially reached out and introduced itself through his windshield. A tire from the aircraft’s landing gear punched straight through the truck’s window, sending glass into Boardley’s arm and hand. He was transported to the hospital and treated for those injuries.
All 221 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the flight landed safely. United Airlines confirmed the plane taxied to the gate normally and that no one on board was hurt. The airline’s maintenance team began assessing the aircraft, and an investigation into how the incident occurred was promptly launched. For the people on the ground, however, it was an afternoon they are unlikely to forget.
What Exactly Happened on the Turnpike
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
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 3, 2026
According to New Jersey State Police, a preliminary investigation found that a tire from the plane’s landing gear, along with the underside of the aircraft, made contact with both the light pole and Boardley’s bakery truck. The sequence of events unfolded fast: plane clips pole, pole hits a Jeep, landing gear tire goes through a truck windshield. It sounds like a fever dream, but it was all captured on cellphone video obtained by CBS News Baltimore.
Chuck Paterakis, senior vice president of transportation and logistics at H&S Bakery, confirmed the details about Boardley and the truck. H&S Bakery is a well-known Baltimore-area institution, and Boardley was simply doing his job, making a routine delivery run when a Boeing 767 decided to become part of his commute.
The Flight Itself Landed Without Incident
From the perspective of everyone aboard United Flight 169, the experience was uneventful. The plane came in, landed, taxied to the gate, and passengers deplaned. United Airlines released a statement confirming that the aircraft had come into contact with a light pole during its final approach, that no passengers or crew were injured, and that a maintenance evaluation and investigation would follow.
That is a notable distinction. A plane can strike infrastructure on the ground and still land safely, which speaks both to the durability of commercial aircraft and to the skill of the flight crew. However, the fact that an international flight clipped a highway light pole on approach raises serious questions worth examining carefully.
What This Incident Reveals About Airport Approach Corridors
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Newark Liberty International Airport sits in a dense, heavily trafficked stretch of New Jersey, with flight paths that run directly over major roadways including the New Jersey Turnpike. Planes landing at Newark are a common sight for drivers, and they often appear startlingly close to the highway. Most of the time, that is simply the nature of approaching a major metropolitan airport. Sunday’s incident, however, is a reminder that the margin for error in these approach corridors is not unlimited.
Aviation authorities will likely examine flight path data, altitude readings, and aircraft configuration during the descent. Whether this was a case of an unusually low approach, an equipment issue, or something else entirely will be the focus of the investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration typically becomes involved in incidents of this nature, and the findings could carry implications for how approaches to Newark are managed going forward.
What We Can Learn From a Plane Hitting a Bakery Truck
If there is one thing this incident underscores, it is that aviation safety is not just about what happens in the sky. The ground matters too, particularly in areas where flight paths and dense highway traffic coexist in close proximity. Boardley was doing nothing wrong. He was a delivery driver on a public highway, going about his day, and ended up in the hospital because of something that descended from 30,000 feet away.
For travelers, this is a good reminder that the systems keeping flights safe are multilayered and that investigations following unusual events are genuinely important. For people who drive under flight paths regularly, it is worth knowing that these incidents, while extraordinarily rare, are not impossible. And for the aviation industry, any event involving contact between an aircraft and ground-level infrastructure demands thorough scrutiny, no matter how cleanly the plane itself lands.
Warren Boardley is recovering. The passengers on Flight 169 are home. And somewhere on the New Jersey Turnpike, there is a light pole with a story to tell.