Michael Mott reports Frontier Flight 4345 runway collision kills one

Michael Mott reports that Frontier Airlines flight 4345 hit and killed a person walking on a Denver International Airport runway during takeoff at about 11:19 p.m. Friday. The plane was headed from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport.

The airport said the person jumped a perimeter fence and was hit two minutes after entering the airport. Airport authorities said the person is not believed to have been an airport employee.

Frontier Flight 4345

The pilot told the control tower, “We’re stopping on the runway,” then added, “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.” The pilot also told the air traffic controller the plane had “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”

Frontier Airlines said flight 4345 was the aircraft involved in the collision. The airline said smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.

Denver International Airport

After the collision, the pilot told the tower, “We are going to evacuate on the runway.” That left the aircraft stopped on the runway while responders dealt with the fire and smoke reported on board.

The case centers on how a pedestrian reached an active runway and how quickly the situation escalated once the plane struck the person. The airport’s account says the person had entered the airport only minutes before the impact, putting the collision inside a tight window on Friday night.

Friday Night At DEN

For passengers on flight 4345, the immediate issue was the abort, the fire report and the evacuation on the runway. For the airport, the collision turned a departure into an emergency response within minutes of the plane’s takeoff roll.