A person who jumped a fence and was on a runway at Denver International Airport was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane during takeoff, airport authorities said. The collision sparked an engine fire and forced passengers to evacuate.
The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, 鈥渞eported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,鈥� according to a post on the airport鈥檚 official X account.
A spokesperson for the airport said the person, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.
鈥淲e鈥檙e stopping on the runway,鈥� the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. 鈥淲e just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.鈥�
The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have 鈥�231 souls鈥� on board and that an 鈥渋ndividual was walking across the runway.鈥�
The air traffic controller responds that they are 鈥渞olling the trucks now鈥� before the pilot tells the tower they 鈥渉ave smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.鈥�
Frontier Airlines said in a statement that flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that 鈥渟moke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.鈥� It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the collision.
The airline said the plane was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members.
鈥淲e are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities,鈥� the airline said.
Passengers were evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. The airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals.
One passenger, Jacob Athens, posted video showing people sliding down with their backpacks. He also posted photos of what looked like a damaged engine.
鈥淎s we were lifting off the engine of the plane exploded. There was so much smoke we couldn鈥檛 even see 1 ft in front of us,鈥� Athens said on his Facebook page, adding that passengers had to wait for over a hour on the runway and 鈥渟till no transport or help with the cold.鈥�
Other video shows passengers calmly walking down the aisle of the plane and using the slide to evacuate. They were told to step away from the plane.
Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, was closed amid an investigation. It reopened Saturday around 11 a.m.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the person 鈥渂reached airport security at Denver Int鈥檒 Airport, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway.鈥�
He added: 鈥淣o one should EVER trespass on an airport.鈥�
The incident came a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, the airline said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident or the name of the employee.
鈥淲e are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,鈥� the airline said. 鈥淲e are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.鈥�
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