New details released after United plane flew 15 feet above NJ Turnpike, striking pole

NEWARK (WABC) — New details were released about the close call at Newark Airport last month.

A United Jet flew about 15 feet above the busy New Jersey Turnpike on its approach to the runway.

The plane hit a light pole in the process and that pole hit a delivery truck.

“Low and slow,” those are the words used in a new NTSB report to describe the United flight that came close to catastrophe after hitting a light pole on the New Jersey Turnpike while landing at Newark airport.

The report found that the flight with more than 230 passengers and crew on board was flying dangerously low at just 15 feet above one of the busiest highways in the country.

Investigators say the pilots had been given multiple runway changes in the minutes before the incident, as they descended in strong winds and were eventually told to land at Newark’s shortest runway.

The first officer warned the captain, who was manually flying the plane, that the airspeed was slow, eventually saying, “You are still slow and a little low.”

Moments later, the plane hit the light pole, which crashed down onto a delivery truck, injuring the driver.

According to the NTSB, the captain said he “heard a thump” shortly before touchdown.

Passengers deplaned normally, but the plane suffered “substantial damage” with a gash in the side of the fuselage.

“The NTSB is gonna wanna go back and say what is it about this approach, this runway, how can we take out the possibility of error that almost led to tragedy in this case,” an expert said.

The driver’s father spoke out in the days after the accident

“Imagine that, struck by a plane, generally nobody walks away from a plane crash, nobody,” he said.

The first officer says he looked outside seconds before touching down and recalled thinking the plane looked too low above the turnpike, but at that point it was too late to change anything.

The Boeing 767 has not flown since the incident.

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