NEW YORK — The copilot of a United Airlines passenger jet that struck a light pole as it landed at a New Jersey airport last month recognized the plane was coming in low, but told investigators he didn’t realize it in time to call for an aborted landing, according to a new report Thursday.
Crewmembers on the May 3 flight from Venice, Italy, also recalled hearing a loud “thump” and feeling a “mild jolt” just before touchdown at Newark Liberty International Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board stated in its initial report.
The report states the first officer recalled saying “you are still slow and a little low” as the plane descended. He then recalled looking back outside and thinking the plane was low, but just about to touch down.
The report provides the first description of the events from the crew inside the plane, but it doesn’t identify a specific reason why the plane came in so low, or make recommendations about how to prevent similar incidents. That’s not expected until the NTSB releases its final report, likely sometime next year.
The agency does, however, note that the plane’s crew was told to prepare for three different runway landings as they approached the airport, but were given little time to do so.
It also clarifies for the first time that it was debris from the light pole, and not the plane itself, that hit a truck traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike. Law enforcement officials initially said the plane had hit the top of a bakery truck, causing minor injuries to the driver.
The report says the truck’s windshield was damaged and its trailer punctured, but that there was no evidence of tire marks on either the tractor cab or trailer.
The Boeing 767 was able to land safely, though it sustained “substantial” damage to its fuselage and one of its landing tires had evidence of slash marks, according to the NTSB report. None of the more than 200 people aboard the plane were hurt.
Regular drivers on that stretch of Interstate 95 near the Newark airport are likely used to seeing planes coming in low as they cross the highway in preparation for landing.
Dashboard camera video from inside the truck showed the moment of impact. The driver is seen singing happily to himself, then glancing out his window with a slight look of concern as the sound of the jet’s whining engines begins on the recording. A moment later, part of the plane zooms into view out the driver’s side window.
D. Blake Stringer, director of the Center for Aviation Studies at The Ohio State University, said the NTSB report suggests the pilot intentionally took a shallow approach to the runway – well below the established flight path.
“It’s not surprising that the airplane clipped infrastructure near the runway,” he said. “If a pilot can’t fly the intended flight path, the general recommendation is to steepen the angle of descent, not shallow it out.”
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said Thursday’s report suggests the captain was challenged by strong winds and a short runway.
At one point shortly before landing, the pilot told investigators that he “got fast” as he turned the airplane into the headwind, the report states. The pilot pulled the power levers back to compensate as wind gusts produced “moderate turbulence.”
The tarmac where the plane landed is the shortest runway at the airport at 6,726 feet. It is generally only used when there are strong winds like there were that afternoon. An air traffic controller told pilots at the time that the winds were gusting up to 31 mph.
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Associated Press transportation reporter Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska contributed to this story.
