A Frontier Airlines flight accelerating for takeoff struck and killed a person who had jumped a perimeter fence and walked onto the runway at Denver International Airport late Friday night, causing an engine fire and evacuation that injured 12 people.
Emergency crews responded to the airport at 11:19 p.m. after Flight 4345 reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff, DIA officials said in a statement early Saturday morning.
Denver Fire Department crews quickly extinguished the engine fire and passengers evacuated the plane via slides. Twelve people reported minor injuries and five were taken to the hospital, according to the airport.
A video shared by a passenger on social media showed the Los Angeles-bound flight speeding up to prepare for takeoff before the collision, then a loud noise as flames and debris are seen outside the plane, near wing and engine.
Airport officials said the pedestrian, who has not been identified, jumped over a perimeter fence about two minutes before the crash. DIA officials do not believe the person was an airport employee.
Airport workers “examined the fence line and found it to be intact,” DIA leaders said on X at 7:31 a.m.
Air traffic control recordings confirmed the crash and engine fire, according to the site ATC.com.
“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot told the control tower in the recording. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The air traffic controller responded that they are “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot told the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”
#BREAKING
ATC Audio:
• “Tower, Frontier 4345, we’re stopping on the runway.”
• “Uh, there we just hit somebody… we have an engine fire.”
Crew reports 231 souls on board + fuel… pic.twitter.com/D0yVxN0HBp— SLCScanner (@SLCScanner) May 9, 2026
There were 223 passengers and seven crew on the Frontier flight, and most passengers were taken to the terminal by bus and have since left on a different Frontier flight, DIA and airline officials said.
One of those passengers, Victoria Lohman, told Denver7 she heard a “huge bang” as the plane was going down the runway.
“Everyone got really frightened, and understandably so,” she said.
Denver Police Department officials said the crash is still under investigation and no additional information was available as of Saturday afternoon.
DIA officials notified the National Transportation Safety Board about the collision and said runway 17L reopened as of 11 a.m., according to the airport.
NTSB spokesperson Sarah Taylor Sulick said the agency is coordinating with the Federal Aviation Administration, airport authorities and local police to gather information about the crash. The FAA also confirmed agency leaders are investigating.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy released a statement about the crash on X, stating that “No one should EVER trespass on an airport.”
The crash comes one day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, Delta officials said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident nor the name of the employee.
This is a developing story.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.