MARYLAND (WBFF) — Warren Boardley Jr., the driver of a bakery truck struck by a United Airlines plane on the New Jersey Turnpike, has been released from the hospital and was home recovering Tuesday night, according to his attorney, who said his injuries include blunt force trauma.
Boardley’s father, Warren Boardley Sr., and family attorney J. Wyndal Gordon spoke at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Baltimore, demanding answers about Sunday’s collision involving a United Airlines plane and an H&S Bakery truck in New Jersey.
Boardley Jr. was behind the wheel when the plane, approaching Newark Liberty International Airport, struck the truck he was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike. Gordon said the plane was approaching and “flying very low” when its landing gear tire and the underside of the plane hit the truck and a light pole. Boardley Jr. survived.
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At the news conference, Boardley Sr. described what his son told him he was thinking during the crash.
“He described total fear that he wouldn’t walk away from. He thought that he would be decapitated, that’s what he thought,” Boardley Sr. said.
Boardley Sr. also described what his son said happened at the moment of impact: “He said he seen a flash and it made him duck, throw up his hands. And in doing so, I believe he struck his head at a real force. Yeah, I think he struck is head.”
Gordon said he has reached out to United Airlines and other entities as part of a fact-finding process.
“We’ve heard multiple stories about what actually happened, how this collision occurred. Was it pilot error? Was it mechanical misfunction? Was it weather?” Gordon said.
Gordon said the family is grateful Boardley Jr. did not suffer broken bones or internal organ damage, but said there are still serious concerns.
“We’re grateful we don’t have broken bones. We’re grateful that don’t have internal organ damage, although there may be some issues with his brain. But we don’t have liver, heart, lung damage. But we are injured, and it is serious,” Gordon said.
Boardley Sr. said viewing the truck’s dashcam video of the collision brought him to tears.
“I look at it like this. Had he been going one mile per hour faster, one mile per hour slower, it would have more than likely killed him. More than likely. So that alone, you know, that shook me to my core, you know, lose my son and to be able to see it,” he said.
Gordon said he expects to hear from United Airlines soon.
“We got to find out what happened, okay? We expect that there’s some negligence there because planes just don’t drop out of the sky and they just don’t ordinarily and routinely hit 18 wheelers traveling along the New Jersey Turnpike,” Gordon said.
Watch the full news conference below:
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation. United Airlines said in a statement that its maintenance team is evaluating the aircraft and that a full safety investigation is underway.
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