DENVER — A Frontier Airlines plane hit a person just before takeoff at Denver International Airport.
The person, who had jumped an airport fence and was on a runway, was killed during the incident on Friday night, The Associated Press reported.
Flight 4345 had been cleared for takeoff, but moments later, the pilot told air traffic control that he was “stopping on the runway,” adding, “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire,” CBS News reported.
The pilot told air traffic control that there “was an individual walking across the runway.”
KDVR shared video of the moment the person walked across the runway, stopping the clip just before impact. The video may be disturbing to some.
From the time the person, who was not identified, jumped the fence to the time they were hit was about two minutes.
Aviation expert Randy Klatt told KDVR that even if airport security immediately noticed the person, they probably could not have prevented the collision or alerted air traffic controllers to stop the plane quickly enough. The airport spans 53 square miles, the television station said.
“Their jet was already rolling. The timing just tells me that it was something that would be very difficult to stop within that short period of time,” Klatt said.
At first the crew was told to exit the runway, but the pilot responded seconds later that they would evacuate the plane on the runway after smoke filled the aircraft.
Passengers and crew members left the plane via inflatable slides and were bused to the terminal. Their flight to Los Angeles was rescheduled, CBS News reported.
Initially, the airline said there were no injuries among the 224 passengers, but airport officials said 12 people had minor injuries, with five taken to area hospitals.
The plane had seven crew members, the AP reported.
The airline said it is investigating, as are the Denver Police Department, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration, KDVR reported.
The incident occurred a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed at Orlando International Airport when an aircraft towing vehicle hit a jetway, WFTV reported.
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