Flight strikes, kills pedestrian on Denver runway

A Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. flight leaving Denver International Airport struck and killed a person who stepped onto the runway after jumping a fence. (Bloomberg) Photo by DANIEL SLIM /AFP via Getty Images

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A Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. flight leaving Denver International Airport struck and killed a person who stepped onto the runway after jumping a fence.

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The aircraft struck a pedestrian during takeoff at about 11:19 p.m. local time on Friday, sparking an engine fire, Denver International Airport said in a post on X. The Airbus A321 plane heading to Los Angeles International Airport was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members, the airline said in a statement.

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The pilots aborted the takeoff as smoke filled the cabin.

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“There was a brief engine fire that was promptly extinguished by the Denver Fire Dept.,” the Denver airport said on X. The National Transportation Safety Board has been notified and the affected runway will remain closed while investigations are conducted, it said.

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The NTSB said in a statement that it was coordinating with the Federal Aviation Administration and local law enforcement to gather information about the event.

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The airport authority said the pedestrian jumped over the perimeter fence, and was struck and killed two minutes later while crossing the runway. The authority didn’t identify the pedestrian but said the person was not believed to be an airport employee, and that the fence was intact.

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Twelve people reported minor injuries from the fire and five were transported to local hospitals, the airport said.

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Runway incursions are extremely rare given airports’ heightened security measures, but can end deadly when they do occur. The Denver incident follows several recent episodes in the US that have raised scrutiny of aviation safety. In March, an Air Canada Express plane collided with a fire truck shortly after landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing the captain and co-pilot.

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That incident marked the third major commercial aviation accident on US soil in 15 months. Earlier this month, a United Airlines Holdings Inc. plane hit a vehicle and light post on an adjacent highway in its final approach to Newark Liberty International Airport. There were no serious injuries in that incident.

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Airports typically have perimeter fencing to thwart intrusion, and some hubs have installed electronic tripwires to protect miles of barriers. Still, there have been cases where people have overcome the barriers and gained access, including incidents in Munich and Berlin in late 2022, where climate protesters broke through the security fence and glued themselves to taxiways.

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Sealing off an airfield from its surrounding remains a challenge particularly in poorer parts of the world, where airports tend to have little to no ring-fencing. In 2005, an Air France Airbus A330 aircraft hit a cow that had strayed onto the tarmac at the airport in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. None of the 196 passengers and crew were injured.

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In the Frontier incident on Friday, one of the aircraft’s pilots was heard saying to the controller: “Frontier 4345, we’re stopping on the runway. We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire,” according to a recording of the air traffic control communications on ATC.com,

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Frontier said it’s investigating the incident and “gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”

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“We are deeply saddened by this event,” the airline said.

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