BALTIMORE, Maryland (WBAL) — An injured Baltimore bakery truck driver’s family is speaking out after Sunday’s crash involving a United Airlines plane in New Jersey.
Warren Boardley Jr., 39, was injured after a plane struck the truck he was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike during the aircraft’s approach to Newark Liberty International Airport.
Boardley’s father and the family’s attorney, J. Wyndal Gordon, spoke at a news conference late Tuesday afternoon about the trauma that the driver now faces.
“He described fear, total fear that he wouldn’t walk away from it, that he would be decapitated. That’s what he thought,” William Boardley Sr. said. “He said he seen a flash and it made him duck and put up his hands, and in doing so, that’s how I believe he struck his head.”
They called the incident serious and demanded a thorough investigation amid a fact-finding process currently underway.
Gordon said the plane was approaching the airport when its landing gear tire and the underside of the plane struck the H&S Bakery truck and a light pole. They said Boardley Jr. suffered blunt force trauma.
Boardley Sr. said the truck’s dashcam video that shows the collision brought him to tears.
“I never seen nothing like it,” William Boardley Sr. said. “For someone to survive it, I never seen it. I was thrown aback.”
Gordon said he sent letters to United Airlines and 10 other entities to demand answers as to what could have led to the incident.
Baltimore-based H&S Bakery said it’s conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the incident. The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating.
Gordon wants a thorough investigation, he said.
“We expect there is some negligence there. Plans don’t normally drop out of the sky, they don’t just ordinarily and normally hit 18 wheelers traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike,” Gordon said. “Was it pilot error? Was it mechanical malfunction? Was it weather? Was it something that happened inside of the cabin of the aircraft? Was it air traffic control? We don’t know, and that’s what we need to know.
United Airlines told WBAL-TV 11 News that the company welcomes dialogue with Boardley Jr. and his counsel.
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