A Frontier Airlines plane struck and killed a person who had breached security and entered a runway during takeoff at Denver International Airport late Friday, triggering an engine fire, smoke inside the cabin and the emergency evacuation of all passengers onboard.
Flight 4345, an Airbus A321 bound for Los Angeles, was accelerating for departure at about 11:00 p.m. local time when the collision occurred.
Air traffic control audio captured the pilot telling the tower: “We just hit somebody.”
The pilot later added: “We have an engine fire.”
Authorities said the individual had climbed over a perimeter fence and reached the runway about two minutes before the impact.
The person was pronounced dead at the scene.
The pilot informed controllers that there was “an individual walking across the runway” before the aircraft halted on the runway.
The aircraft was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members, according to Frontier Airlines.
Smoke was later reported inside the cabin, prompting pilots to abort takeoff and initiate an evacuation using inflatable emergency slides.
Denver International Airport said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries during the incident.
Five people were transported to nearby hospitals, though their conditions were not immediately known.
Passenger Jose Cervantes described hearing a loud impact before seeing flames near the wing.
“I thought I was going to burn to death,” he told CBS.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described the person killed as a trespasser who “deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway.”
“No one should EVER trespass on an airport,” Duffy said.
Airport officials said the perimeter fence appeared intact after an inspection.
The runway involved in the incident was closed while investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board began inquiries into the collision and subsequent engine fire.
Frontier Airlines said most passengers later departed Denver on a replacement flight.
Denver International Airport said it was “extremely saddened by this incident” and expressed sympathies to those involved.