United Flight 169 Strikes Truck on Final | Captain Steeeve Reacts

We begin with that breaking news at Newark Airport.A United Airlines flight struck a light pole in a tractor trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Dash cam footage shows the moment a truck is struck.

What the heck is going on at Newark International Airport and United Airlines on an absolutely beautiful day?Let me show you the moment of impact here between a United Airlines 767 -400 and an 18 -wheeler as it's headed down the freeway.Watch this.This is shocking.Here it comes.Unbelievable.

I'm just...This is shocking to me that that airplane got so low on a completely clear day that it runs into this truck.Now, fortunately, nobody was seriously injured and nobody was killed in this accident, and it's hard to understand.I'm going to unwrap everything for you.We've got ATC audio of the airplane as they're coming in.I'm going to show you why they chose this runway.

I absolutely don't know.They're on their way back from Venice to Newark.It's a beautiful day.You're going to hear the pilot's voice here in a minute.He's in a good mood.He's lighthearted.

You can hear that as he's talking on the radios.He's on an RNAV approach to runway 29 at Newark.Now, I can tell you, I've got 23 and a half years of experience on the Boeing 767, all the different variants of it.This is a 76400.It's an older airplane, very nice airplane, however.very long airplane.

That is going to be a factor here in a minute.But they're doing basically kind of a circle to land on runway 29.And I'll show you the approach plate here.This is the RNAV GPS Whiskey to runway 29.They're coming in from the norththey come all the way down, and they get to a point called axle, which is right down here.

And at axle, they're still in kind of a right -hand turn when I say kind of circling.This is not a classic circle -to -land approach, but they're in a constant turn as they roll out on the runway.And they clearly got real low here.They got so low that they impacted the truck.And it's, again, kind of shocking that they got that low, or they allowed themselves to get that low, on a completely wonderfully visible day.It's a caboo to the moon, as they say out there, and these guys got themselves into trouble as they were coming in on this final, this RNAV approach, and they got way, way, way too low.

Let me take you now to the audio so we can listen in to what was going on in the cockpit the seconds prior to this collision.Watch this.Alright, so it's United 169.They're doing the RNAV to runway 29 and you can hear the lilt in his voice.They're kind of in a good mood.You know what?

They've made it all the way back from Venice.It's a beautiful day.They're on their way.The weekend's over.They're going to head home here in a few minutes, and they're checking in with Tower.This is the last person they're going to talk to.

They're going to talk to Ground and then Taxi.That's it.And everybody's in a good mood at this point.I'll explain Runway 29 and why that was a bad idea.Here they come.

169 having a low wind 3 -0 -0 -1 -5, gust 3 -1, runway 2 -9, cleared to land.

Okay, so basically the winds are right down the runway.They're 15 gusting to 31, which is a pretty gusty wind.That's a lot of wind, but they're right down the runway for 2 -9, which might have explained partly why they didn't land on the 2 -2s, because it would have been quite a crosswind forto land on the 2 -2s?That's my only explanation for why in the world they would circle the land on runway 2 -9.Runway 2 -9 at Newark is 6 ,725 feet long.

That's a short runway for a big airplane like this.The main runways, 2 -2 right and 2 -2 left, are 10 ,000 and 9 ,000 feet, or 11 ,000 feet, respectfully.Very nice long runways, lots of room to roll out.So one of the things that the pilots are thinking about when they're coming around to land on a short runway like this is you better get the airplane down in the first part of the runway.You don't want to float.You don't want to go too far.

These guys take it to the extreme.They're so low that they probably ignored a lot of warnings.And the biggest one is visual and experience.Experience says we're too low.I can see visually in front of me we're too low.We've got to climb up.

but they're dragging it in as they're coming in.Let's listen to some more.They've just been cleared to land on runway 29.

United 169.

All right, nice lilt in their voice.United 169 heavy, exit the high speed, then left turn to join Yankee in contact ground.

Okay, so this is when they're on the ground.Now I'm going to stop it right there.We'll come back to this in just a minute, but what I want to do first is I want to go back and talk about what set up the point where these guys landed, and you're going to hear the pilot's voice here in a minute.Now, first of all, it's ground calling them on the ground.You would think that the ground controller would be in somewhat of a panic, or excuse me, it's the tower controller switching them to ground.You'd think he'd be in a panic.

He doesn't see them hitting the truck.Now, do the pilots know that they hit the truck?Well, hold on.All right.You're going to know whether they did or not.Now, one of the cues that they had as they were coming into the runway is something called a PAPI.

A PAPI is a Precision Approach Path Indicator.PAPIare either on the left side of the runway or the right side.Not every runway has a PAPI system, but that's a system of four lights in a row, and they turn white or red depending on whether you're on the proper glide path.The perfect three -degree glide slope to a runway is two white, and 2 red.When you see 2 white and 2 red, you're good.

You're on a nice glide path.If you see 3 white or 4 white, you're way too high.And if you see 3 red or 4 red, you're way too low.These guys were so low, they might not have even seen the pappies.And one of the things that was different about Runway 29, another reason why they should have said unable to land on Runway 29, is that the pappies, which are typically on the left in the picture I'm showing you here, this is a runway that has them on both sides.Typically, they're just on the left -hand side.

The pappies on runway 29 at Newark are on the right -hand side.That's a little bit different.It's actually much more convenient for the RJ pilots that are going to be circling to land on that runway.But when you're a widebody, it's a bigger sight picture, bigger airplane, everything is just more extreme.About a widebody, having pappies on the right side is unusual.You're not looking for them over there.

These guys might never even have glanced at the pappies.They should have, because had they done that, they would have seen four reds.In addition to their sight picture and their eyes are just telling them, hey, we're just way too low.Okay, so that's the PAPI picture on runway 29.Now, let me show you what a normal approach looks like to that runway.We've got some video.

This is from a while back.The pilot was taking video, probably shouldn't have, but we've got this available to us here via the internet.And this is what a normal glide path looks like.This is not the glide path that United 169 was on just yesterday.Let's take a look at this.Here we go.

We're coming into the runway.Let me stop it there.There's a nice sight picture, but you can see the freeway in front of you.All the 18 wheelers going by.I've driven that freeway many times.That's I -95 as it goes right by Newark Airport.

I have never landed on runway 29 at Newark.Why?It's too short.And I was based in New York for most of my career.It's simply too short.There's no good reason to land on 29.

And that's why you hear me harp on experience so much on this channel, because the experienced pilots that are flying the Y -bodies are going to say unable, right?when they get offered the RNAV to runway 29, they're going to say, I want the 22s.The only extenuating circumstance here was the wind.OK, I'll give you that.But I'm still telling you, I'm still landing on 22, and I'm taking the crosswind on 22 because it's a longer runway.But here we are on a normal approach inbound, and we'll go all the way down to touchdown, right over the freeway, plenty of height over the freeway.

Stop it right here.All right, that's a normal sight picture as you're coming across.Do you see where all of the skid marks are on the runway?That's where the wheels typically touch down.There's one set of skid marks just here in the dashed lines at the beginning prior to the runway 29 marking.Somebody landed real short there.

All right, our guys that just landed, they probably touched down right about there, but they were dragging it in.So instead of coming in on a normal three degree glide slope and then doing a flare at the end, these guys were dragging it in the whole time, whole time, whole time.Boom, they hit the truck, they drag it in, and then they just do like this when they touch down.So a completely different approach.And again, very unprofessional.Here we go.

See where they're going to touch down?Right about there right about where those two big white markers are thoserectangles on the runway, that's right about where the nose needs to be when the airplane touches down.That's a normal approach.Let me show you what a low approach looks like, and this was taken out of somebody's window as they were driving by an I -95.This is last year.

This is not the airplane that just happened, the 7 -6 that just hit the truck.This is from last year.The weather's kind of bad, but these guys are super low, and this is what it would look like from the freeway.this is in slow motion look at this look how low they are above the freeway right about there they almost hit that light pulse that light stand almost hit the light stand they're just a few feet away from hitting it all right they're going to continue on the main mounts hang way down and just imagine you can see how low that is just imagine how low the 767 was just yesterday for those main mounts to impact that truck.It was 50 feet lower, maybe even 80 feet lower than that airplane right now.And that airplane was super low.

Now I'm going to show you one more video here, and we're going to stop this in a couple of places because it's real important to see just exactly what happened the split second before impact.This truck driver is driving down the road, having a good time.He's even singing to himself.He's in a good mood.and his whole life, his whole day is about to change.All right, let's watch this as he comes, and right, right.

I'm gonna stop it right there, outside the window, next to him, let's highlight it, right there, that, that's what's highlighted, that's the wheels, the main mounts of a Boeing 767 -400 that's about to impact your truck.This airplane is so low, it's gonna strike a a light pole and it's going to rip through the back of this truck.It's amazing that this guy didn't die, but because it went through the back of the truck and not the front,of the truck, he survives.Did the pilots know that they hit this truck?That's the million -dollar question.

We're going to answer that in a minute, so hang on.Watch this.This is the next thing.Look at that.right there.See that car?

See in front of it?See that bent over pole?You see the airplane coming down?The wing of the airplane hit, or maybe the main mount hit, that pole and bent it over.So now it's protruding into the freeway.So there's a tremendous amount of damage.

We're going to find out that there was a hole in the airplane at the end of this when we go back to the ATC audio, but that right there, There it is.There's the bent pole that you can see.This car is driving right by it.So that's now protruding into the freeway.And the 767 just struck that and bent that thing over.Unbelievable.

Let's watch one more time the moment of impact, because I can't believe that anybody survived this.Here it comes.He's singing, having a good time.And listen.Unbelievable.He gets hit so hard that his dash cam completely comes off its mooring and, you know, it crashes into the into the cab of the truck.

And did the pilots know that they hit anybody or not?Well, let's go back now to the video we were listening to, and we were on ground control after they had touched down.So I'm here to tell you for this airplane, to have done what it did, they had to overcome a number of things.One is the visual from their eyes.They knew they were too low, but they didn't do anything to adjust their glide path.They were just kind of, like I said, they were just kind of skimming along like this.

They weren't on a normal glide path in a flare.They were justalong the ground.They hit the truck.Did they know or didn't they?Hang in there for a minute on that.

They might have it might not have.We'll find out when the report comes out on this.Was there any cockpit warnings?Was there a GPWS going off?GPWS is ground proximity warning system.When you get too low to the ground, it will say, too low terrain, too low terrain.

Now they were not on a precision approach, so it wouldn't say glide path, glide path, whoop whoop, pull up.It wouldn't say any of that stuff because they weren't on a precision approach.But it could say, too low terrain.But if they were just kind of skimming along, it might not.That's when you're coming down on a glide path and you get too low like this, and the runway's out over here.So they might not have had any warnings, but again, experience matters in these sort of things.

And by the way, when you hear me talk about experience a lot and how there's no substitute for it, the Senate just dropped a bill to raise the pilot retirement age.And so the House has had a version for about six months.The Senate is just coming out.I think it's today or tomorrow they're going to announce their version of the raise the pilot retirement age.I think it's a modest bill.They're asking to raise the pilot retirement age by two years.

I think that would solve a lot of these problems by just slowing the whole process down.All right, and keeping the most experienced pilots in the cockpit.Over the last two years, thousands of pilots like me and others have been forced to retire, and all that experience has left.All right, now, let's go back to ground control, because ground control was just talking to the airplane, and what was their reaction?

Now to 169 heavy, exit the high speed, then left turn to join Yankee in contact ground.

Okay, I want you to listen to the pilot's voice.Remember the lilt in his voice when theycoming into land?They've just hit the truck, they've just bent the light pole, they've just touched down on the runway.Listen to his voice.

Yankee and over to ground, United 169.

Sounds just as normal as normal can be.Hey, Yankee over to ground, United 169.All right, let's see, does he change the tone in his voice at all?

Hold ground, United 169, just joining Yankee.

You can't fake that voice.This isn't him acting, trying to, you know, hey, even there, there would be real concern in their voice.And there'd be like, um, uh, uh, you, you would hear it, right?These are not professional actors.This is a guy that just ran into a truck, just been a light pole, just landed in the first a hundred feet of runway, uh, uh, two nine and doesn't even know it.Here we go.

169 heavy to a ground taxi Yankee Sierra alpha.Good day.Yankee, Sierra, Alpha for United 169.There's more.Let me try that again.Yankee, Uniform, Bravo, Sierra, Sierra, Alpha.

That was so much easier the first time.

That was so much easier the first time.This guy's in a great mood.They have no idea.what's happened.They eventually taxi to the gate where all heck breaks loose and they find out exactly what happened to their airplane.So we hear them talking to the ground controller like nothing happened.

It's shocking to me that they didn't feel the impact or didn't connect it with them being too low.They're going to find out when they get back to the gate just exactly what was wrong.There's actually a gaping hole in the side of the airplane.There's some conversation back and forth between the ground controllers and theemergency trucks on the airport saying that they're going to go check out the damage.They didn't see any damage on the runway when they touched down.

All of the damage would have been back on the freeway, clearly, but there was a hole in the airplane when they got back there.And then the ball starts rolling for what's going to happen to the pilots and what's going to happen to the crew.But to me, this is absolutely stunning what happened here.And the fact that I don't think they even knew that they hit these guys.The way to avoid an accident like this is to just simply say unable when you're gonna Pick a runway that's basically about 3 ,000 to 4 ,000 feet shorter than the other available runways at the airport.You simply say, can't do it.

I don't care how clear a day it is.You can't do that.And everybody's in a good mood.They're getting ready to land.But because of that, they forced a really low approach.They got so low that they hit a truck.

This should never happen.This is not acceptable.There's not a parameter that I can think of that would say, well, I understand how this happened.You know, it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances.Now, this could have been avoided in a bunch of different ways.If there's any new news that comes out on this, we obviously will update you on it right away.

I'm really, really Looking forward to the preliminary report on this one because, again, I don't know how you don't point fingers at the crew, but we'll reserve judgment for right now on what happened and why it happened.But when you get that low that you hit a truck over the freeway, that's too low.Well, now you know.I'm Captain Steve.Fly safe.All right, this was some crazy going on at Newark.

If you want to see another video or two where there's some crazy stuff going on in Newark, check out one of these.