Frontier Jet Hits Person on Runway During Takeoff at Denver Airport
A Frontier Airlines plane struck a person on the runway as it was taking off from Denver International Airport late Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The pilots aborted the takeoff and the plane was evacuated after reporting an engine fire.
The Airbus A321 jet, with 224 passengers and seven crew members, was leaving on Flight 4345 to Los Angeles International Airport when the collision took place, according to statements from Frontier and the F.A.A.
Smoke was reported from inside the plane and the passengers were safely evacuated using emergency slides as a precaution, Frontier said.
The F.A.A. said in a statement on Saturday morning that the plane “struck a person on Runway 17L” as it was taking off and that the agency was investigating.
There were no details immediately available about the person who was hit or their condition.
A recording posted by the ATC.com app captured the pilots describing the incident. “We’re stopping on the runway,” a pilot told the air traffic control tower. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.” Later, a pilot told the tower that “an individual was walking across the runway.”
The crew told air traffic control that it was evacuating the plane on the runway because of the smoke inside.
Denver airport said in a statement that the episode happened about 11:20 p.m. and that firefighters had put out an engine fire on the plane. The passengers were taken back to the terminal by bus, it added.
The plane came to a sudden stop on the runway soon after it had started accelerating for takeoff, according to a data replay from the tracking website Flightradar24.
Frontier’s headquarters are in Denver. The airline and the airport both said that investigations were underway. The airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified.
In a statement, the N.T.S.B. said that it was working to gather information alongside the F.A.A. and local agencies.
Denver airport did not report major disruptions to flight operations. Runway 17L, which was closed after the collision, is one of six runways at the airport.
