767 Gear Apparently Hit Cab of Bread Truck, Driver Treated for Minor Scrapes

The driver of a bread truck that was hit by the landing gear of a Boeing 767 in New Jersey on Sunday was taken to a local hospital for minor scrapes and bruises but released a short time later. A freeze frame from a video we carried in an AvBrief Instant Update sent a few hours after the mishap shows a gear assembly in the driver’s window of the truck just before impact.

The driver, who has not been identified, was driving a delivery truck on the New Jersey Turnpike when the United 767-400 got low on the approach. Initial reports suggest a main gear on the plane contacted the cab of the truck essentially right above the driver’s head and then went on to land safely. According to Weather Underground, winds were out of the west at 8 knots but were starting to get gusty about the time of the incident.

AvBrief has obtained an ATC recording of one of the pilots of the widebody asking for a discrete way to discuss the incident. After clearing the runway, the pilot asked the ground controller for a telephone number he could call, likely to avoid having to talk about it on the radio. Here’s the brief recording:

The FlightAware track of the flight shows the standard right turn to short final used for Runway 29 at Newark. The plane was likely on a visual approach, given the clear weather at the time.