Weeks after deadly LaGuardia incident, another plane crashes into truck while landing

A United Airlines passenger aircraft was involved in an unusual ground collision while landing in New Jersey, striking a truck and a streetlight near the runway, authorities confirmed.

The aircraft, a Boeing 767 arriving from Venice, Italy, landed safely despite the incident. All 231 passengers and crew members on board were unharmed.

According to initial reports, one of the plane’s tires made contact with a nearby truck during the landing sequence, damaging its window and windshield. The impact caused shattered glass to injure the truck driver, who sustained cuts to the arm and hand and was treated at the scene.

The airline said it has launched a full internal review and has temporarily removed the flight crew from duty pending the outcome of the investigation. Technical teams are also assessing the extent of damage to the aircraft.

The National Transportation Safety Board has opened a formal investigation into the incident. Officials have requested both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder to determine the sequence of events leading up to the collision.

Authorities have not yet provided details on how the truck came into the aircraft’s path, and further findings are expected as the investigation progresses.

The recent ground collision at Newark has drawn immediate comparisons to the tragic Air Canada Express crash that occurred just over a month ago at LaGuardia Airport. In that March 2026 incident, a Bombardier CRJ900 landing from Montreal collided at high speed with a Port Authority fire truck that was crossing the runway. Unlike the Newark event, where injuries were fortunately minor, the LaGuardia collision resulted in the deaths of both pilots and left several passengers injured, marking one of the most significant runway incursions in recent years.

The link between the two events is bolstered by a grim irony: the fire truck involved in the Air Canada disaster was actually responding to a separate emergency involving a United Airlines aircraft at the time. These back-to-back incidents at New York-area airports have intensified scrutiny on ground safety protocols and air traffic control communication. As investigators look into how the United 767 clipped a vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike, the aviation industry remains on high alert, grappling with a troubling trend of near-misses and collisions between aircraft and ground vehicles.