Frontier flight to LA never left the ground after a horrific collision on the Denver runway and the pilot’s split-second call saved 231 lives
One life lost, but many others saved.
Frontier Airlines flight 4353 never left the ground after colliding with a person on the runway at Denver International Airport, but the pilot’s split-second decision to abort takeoff saved all 231 lives on board. The Los Angeles-bound Airbus A321 was accelerating down the runway at nearly 140 mph on the evening of May 8 when it struck an individual who had jumped the airport’s perimeter fence just two minutes earlier.
According to the BBC, passengers described a terrifying scene of smoke filling the cabin and an engine fire that was quickly extinguished by emergency crews, but the quick actions of the flight crew prevented what could have been a catastrophic disaster. Chloe Kuns, a 30-year-old middle school teacher from Michigan, was on board with her one-year-old daughter in her lap when the plane experienced what she called a “big impact” during takeoff.
In an interview, she praised the pilot’s rapid response, explaining that the aircraft was just 15 knots, roughly 17 mph, away from the speed where aborting takeoff would no longer have been possible. “That’s seconds,” she said.
‘This pilot thought so fast, and it could have been so much worse’
Kuns, whose husband is a pilot, said she understood the gravity of the situation. “I’m sad that the flight staff had to use their training like this, but I’m so grateful that clearly the pilot was so locked in and so aware of what was going on.” The pilots aborted takeoff at 120 knots, or about 138 mph, a speed where reaction time is critically limited.
Dave Riley, a former air traffic controller at Denver International Airport with 15 years of experience, told a local outlet that at that speed, everything passes by in a blur. “They get a brief glimpse, and I think that’s how they identified it to the tower controller, saying that they struck a person,” he said.
Air traffic control audio captured the moment the pilot radioed the tower after halting the plane. “We just hit somebody,” the pilot said. “We have an engine fire.” He later added, “We have 231 souls on board,” a standard aviation term referring to everyone on the aircraft, including seven crew members.
The evacuation that followed was chaotic but orderly, thanks to the flight attendants’ training. Kuns recalled passengers yelling, “Get us off this plane,” while the crew remained calm and gave clear instructions. When it was her turn to evacuate with her infant, a flight attendant told her, “Put her on your lap and jump.” She followed the instructions, and a fellow passenger helped catch them at the bottom of the emergency slide.
Passengers saw smoke and flames on the plane’s right wing
Jose Cervantes, another passenger, told a local news outlet that he heard a thud before seeing the fire. “I just see the right wing just on fire and like, it’s exploding,” he said. “I thought I was going to burn to death. You know, when I just saw the fire and the smoke, I just thought I was going to burn.”
The Denver Fire Department quickly extinguished the fire, and the majority of passengers were later rebooked on a new Frontier flight to Los Angeles. The runway was closed while the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board launched investigations into the incident.
The individual struck by the plane was not an airport employee and has not been identified. Denver International Airport confirmed that the person had jumped the perimeter fence just two minutes before the collision. “The pedestrian is deceased, and is not believed to be an employee of the airport, nor have they been identified,” a spokesperson said.
The airport later stated that the fenceline was intact, raising questions about how the individual gained access to the runway. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the incident a deliberate breach of airport security. “Late last night, a trespasser breached airport security at Denver Int’l Airport, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway,” he said in a statement. “No one should EVER trespass on an airport.”
(Featured Image: MarcelX42)
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