Person dies after being hit by Frontier Airlines plane taking off at Denver airport

A person who jumped a fence and was on a runway at Denver International Airport was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane during takeoff.

The collision caused an engine fire and forced passengers to evacuate the plane.

The plane, en route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN on Friday at approximately 11:19 p.m. [Saturday AEST]” said a message on the airport’s official X account.

An airport spokesman said the person, who jumped a fence, has died.

They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. It is probably not an airport employee.

“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot says to the control tower, according to the site ATC.com.

“We just hit someone. We have an engine fire.”

The pilot tells the air traffic controller that they have “231 souls” on board and that “an individual was walking down the runway.”

The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot tells the tower that there is “smoke in the plane. We are going to evacuate on 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 the takeoff.”

It is not clear whether the smoke was related to the collision.

The airline said the plane was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members.

“We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in collaboration with the airport and other security authorities,” the airline said.

Passengers were evacuated via slides and emergency services brought them to the terminal.

The airport spokesman said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals.

One passenger, Jacob Athens, posted a video of people sliding down the evacuation slide. He also posted photos of what appeared to be a damaged engine.

“While we were taking off, the plane’s engine exploded. There was so much smoke that we couldn’t even see 30cm in front of us,” Athens said on his Facebook page, adding that passengers had to wait on the runway for more than an hour and “still no transportation or help against the cold.”

Other video footage shows passengers calmly walking down the aisle of the plane and using the slide to evacuate. They were told to get off the plane.

Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that Runway 17L, where the incident occurred, was closed for an investigation. It reopened around 11 a.m. local time on Saturday.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a post on

He added: “No one should EVER enter an airport.”

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