Passengers described panic after a Frontier plane hit a person on a Denver runway during takeoff, forcing pilots to abort the flight.
DENVER — Passengers aboard a Frontier Airlines flight described panic and confusion after a plane departing from Denver International Airport struck a person on the runway during takeoff, forcing pilots to abort the flight.
The airline said the Airbus A321 was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members when the incident occurred. Authorities said the person had breached the airport perimeter fence and entered the runway area.
Frontier said smoke was reported inside the cabin after the impact, and the airport later confirmed a brief engine fire that was extinguished by firefighters.
Passengers were eventually rebooked onto another flight bound for Los Angeles International Airport.
Several travelers described the ordeal as terrifying.
“Honestly, I thought I was going to die,” passenger Mohamed Hassan said. “A lot of people next to me were screaming and crying. I just closed my eyes. At that time, you’re not really thinking of anything, you know? Because we were just about to take off and I heard that boom, so I wasn’t sure what happened. I just thought something really, really bad happened.”
Passenger Nikil Thalanki said the aircraft appeared to briefly leave the ground before coming back down.
“There was suddenly like this jerk (motion) on the plane, and then we were about to take off,” Thalanki said. “I think our wheels left the ground, and then we immediately came back down. There was fire on the engine. There was lots of sparks that are happening. Immediately came to a stop. As soon as we saw the sparks on the flight, smoke filled the cabin completely. It was super hard to breathe.”
Thalanki said passengers remained seated for several minutes before exits were opened.
“This should have never happened,” Thalanki said. “Someone has to be held accountable, and that’s all I’ll say.”
Another passenger, Omnasch Agarwal, said he woke up during takeoff to flashes and fire outside the aircraft.
“I wake up, and then I see on my right side. There’s this bright orange light coming through,” Agarwal said. “Everybody starts screaming. It’s a very weird atmosphere, and then it just sparks, and then it’s fire.”
He said passengers were instructed to remain seated, despite visible flames.
“We hear the announcement to remain seated,” Agarwal said. “So in my head, I’m like, the engine is obviously on fire—but, like, what to do? We can’t stand up. We have to just remain seated. We cannot take off our belts. It was a period of—just a weird period.”
Passenger Karen Moon said travelers were later brought onto the airfield, where they waited for emergency crews to arrive.
“It was very confusing at first,” Moon said. “We had to stay out in the fields, and then they got buses. They brought us in, and then it was a long wait before they could do anything.”
Moon said many passengers were initially unable to retrieve luggage because investigators needed access to the aircraft.
“A lot of us had things on the plane, and they couldn’t get into the plane because they had to do the investigation,” Moon said. “So now our baggage—they took all our information, so they’re trying really hard to get the baggage to us as quickly as possible, but they treated us very well.”
She added that the situation could have ended far worse.
“Then, of course, when you find out what happened, it was pretty scary, pretty sad,” Moon said. “I feel terrible for the pilot, you know. But we’re alive. Nothing happened to us other than a minor inconvenience. We’re alive, and that’s the good thing, right?”
Franco Valera, who was traveling with family members, said he initially believed the aircraft may have struck a vehicle.
“I’m just trying to relax as everyone’s like screaming and people are getting up,” Valera said. “It was a little scary. (…) It was just really weird because I didn’t expect it. I thought we hit someone, a car.”
Another passenger, Kimberly Randle, said many people feared the worst as smoke and panic spread through the cabin.
“I felt like it was gonna blow up,” Randle said. “They were trying to calm us down—calm down, calm down—because people were panicking really bad.”
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, along with local police.