A Frontier Airlines plane struck and killed a person on the runway as it was taking off from Denver International Airport late Friday, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The pilots aborted the takeoff, and the plane was evacuated after reporting an engine fire.<\/p>\n
The Airbus A321 jet, with 224 passengers and seven crew members, was leaving on Flight 4345 to Los Angeles International Airport when the collision took place, according to statements from Frontier and the Federal Aviation Administration.<\/p>\n
Smoke was reported from inside the plane and the passengers were safely evacuated using emergency slides as a precaution, Frontier said.<\/p>\n
The F.A.A. said in a statement on Saturday morning that the plane \u201cstruck a person on Runway 17L\u201d as it was taking off and that the agency was investigating.<\/p>\n
Denver Airport, also in a statement on Saturday morning, said that the person who was killed had jumped the airport\u2019s perimeter fence and was hit just minutes later while crossing a runway. That person, who has not been identified, is not believed to be an employee of the airport, the statement added.<\/p>\n
The airport said it had examined its fence line following the intrusion, finding it to be intact, and it planned to conduct a full investigation of the incident in the coming days. <\/p>\n
Sean Duffy, the U.S. secretary of transportation, described the person killed as a trespasser who \u201cbreached airport security at Denver Int\u2019l Airport, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway.\u201d<\/p>\n
A recording posted by the ATC.com app, which relays air traffic radio, captured the pilots describing the incident. \u201cWe\u2019re stopping on the runway,\u201d a pilot told the air traffic control tower. \u201cWe just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.\u201d Later, a pilot told the tower that \u201can individual was walking across the runway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crew told air traffic control that it was evacuating the plane on the runway because of the smoke inside.<\/p>\n
Denver Airport said in a statement that the episode happened at about 11:20 p.m. and that firefighters had put out an engine fire on the plane. The passengers were taken back to the terminal by bus, it added. The airport said that 12 people reported minor injuries and five were taken to nearby hospitals.<\/p>\n
The plane came to a sudden stop on the runway soon after it started accelerating for takeoff, according to a data replay<\/a> from the tracking website Flightradar24.<\/p>\n Frontier\u2019s headquarters are in Denver. The airline and the airport both said that investigations were underway. The airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified.<\/p>\n In a statement, the N.T.S.B. said that it was working to gather information alongside the F.A.A. and local agencies.<\/p>\n