A person who climbed over a fence and made it onto a runway at Denver International Airport was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane as it was taking off, airport officials have said.
The collision caused an engine fire and forced passengers to evacuate the aircraft, according to a report by the Associated Press.
In a post on the airport’s official X account, authorities said the flight – bound for Los Angeles International Airport – “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19pm on Friday.”
An airport spokesperson confirmed that the individual, who is not believed to be an employee, died after being struck roughly two minutes after breaching the perimeter fence.
Audio captured by ATC.com records the pilot telling the control tower: “We’re stopping on the runway. We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The pilot added that there were “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”
The air traffic controller responded that emergency vehicles were being dispatched, after which the pilot reported “smoke in the aircraft” and said, “We are going to evacuate on the runway.”
Authorities have not yet released the identity of the deceased. An investigation into how the individual breached airport security and accessed the runway is ongoing. Frontier Airlines has not issued an official statement regarding the incident.
