Person dies after being hit by Frontier Airlines plane taking off at Denver International Airport
Michael Casey
Airport officials announced that a person who jumped over the fence and was on the runway at Denver International Airport died after being hit by a Frontier Airlines plane during takeoff. The collision caused an engine fire and forced the passengers to evacuate.
According to a post on the airport’s official
The airport spokesman said the person who jumped from the surrounding fence died. They said the unidentified man was shot two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.
“We’re standing on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower, according to ATC.com. “We just hit someone. There was a fire in the engine.”
The pilot told the air traffic controller that there were “231 people” on the plane and that “one person was walking on the runway.”
The air traffic controller said they were “rolling the trucks” before the pilot told the tower “there is smoke on the plane. We will evacuate from the runway.”
Frontier Airlines said in a statement that Flight 4345 was involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It is not yet known whether the smoke is related to the collision.
The airline said the Airbus A321 aircraft was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members.
“We are investigating this incident and gathering further information in coordination with the airport and other security authorities,” the airline said.
Passengers were evacuated using slides and the emergency team transported them to the terminal by buses. An airport spokesman said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to hospital.
One of the passengers, Jacob Athens, posted a video showing people sliding down with their backpacks. He also posted photos of what appeared to be a damaged engine.
“The plane’s engine exploded during takeoff. There was so much smoke we couldn’t even see in front of us,” Athens said on its Facebook page, adding that passengers had to wait on the runway for more than an hour and “still no transportation or assistance was provided due to the cold.”
Another video shows passengers calmly walking down the aisle of the plane and being evacuated using the slide. They were told to move away from the plane.
Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board was notified and runway 17L, where the incident occurred, was closed during the investigation. It reopened on Saturday morning.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on
He added: “No one should enter an airport without permission.”
The incident occurred a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed on the job at Orlando International Airport. The employee died Thursday night, the airline said in a statement, without providing details about the incident or the employee’s name.
“We are focused on providing full support to our family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,” the airline said. “We are working with local authorities as a full investigation is launched to determine what happened.”
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