An airplane departing from Denver International Airport in the United States collided with a pedestrian during takeoff on Friday night, an incident that resulted in at least one death and twelve injuries among the passengers, according to the airport and American media.
This was far from a minor accident. An airplane departing from Denver International Airport in the United States collided with a pedestrian during takeoff on Friday night, an incident that resulted in at least one death and twelve injuries among the passengers, according to the airport and American media.
“Frontier Flight 4345 reported hitting a pedestrian during takeoff” around 11:19 PM (05:19 GMT), the airport stated in a press release.
According to ABC News, citing an anonymous source, the person struck “was at least partially burned by one of the engines” and at least one passenger sustained minor injuries.
A fire broke out in the engine
“We are stopping on the runway, we just hit someone, we have a fire in one of the engines… There was a person crossing the runway,” a pilot informed air traffic controllers, as per an audio recording published on ATC.com.
“A brief fire broke out in the engine, but it was quickly extinguished” by the firefighters, the airport added.
Emergency teams intervened on site and transported the passengers by bus to the terminal.
“Smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots halted takeoff. The passengers were then evacuated safely using the slides as a precaution,” Frontier Airlines stated to the media, including CNN.
In a statement shared on Facebook on Saturday afternoon, Denver Airport revealed that the struck pedestrian was deceased. They “crossed the perimeter fence and was struck just two minutes later as they crossed the runway,” the details stated. “It is not believed to be an airport employee, and their identity has not yet been established,” it added.
At this point according to the airport, twelve individuals reported minor injuries, and five of them were taken to local hospitals.
The aircraft, an Airbus A321, had 224 passengers and seven crew members, as per Frontier.
