Flight Taking Off From Denver Strikes Pedestrian On The Runway

A formation taking disconnected from Denver International Airport struck a pedestrian connected nan runway during takeoff connected Friday, Frontier Airlines and nan airdrome said, arsenic videos showed nan wrong of nan motor casing partially red.

The airdrome said Frontier Flight 4345 to Los Angeles International Airport reported striking a pedestrian astatine astir 11:19 p.m. connected Friday (1:19 a.m. Saturday ET), followed by an motor occurrence that was extinguished.

Neither nan hose nor nan airdrome gave immoderate specifications connected nan pedestrian aliases their status. It is not clear if nan motor occurrence was related to nan collision.

The plane, a narrow-body Airbus A321, was carrying 224 passengers and 7 unit members, who were evacuated via slides aft fume filled nan cabin, nan hose said.

“The craft reportedly struck a pedestrian connected nan runway during takeoff. Smoke was reported successful nan compartment and nan pilots aborted takeoff,” nan hose said. “We are profoundly saddened by this event.”

Footage posted to societal media by a rider appears to seizure nan infinitesimal of effect during take-off. A large crashing sound tin beryllium heard, followed by screams from passengers wrong nan plane.

As they sewage disconnected nan level utilizing emergency slides, different rider recorded dimly-lit videos appearing to show damaged motor blades. More passengers were seen evacuating done nan slides successful nan videos.

Emergency crews responded to nan segment and bussed passengers to nan terminal, nan airdrome said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed it is investigating nan incident.

In its statement, nan airdrome said it had unopen runway 17L and that nan National Transportation Safety Board had been notified.