A Frontier Airlines flight aborted takeoff after hitting a person at Denver International Airport, sparking smoke and fire from its engine, sparking chaos and fear.
DENVER – After a fatal car crash A plane taking off from Denver International Airport struck a man who jumped a fence and ran off the runway.the passengers were visibly shocked.
Frontier said the plane was an Airbus A321 operated by Frontier Airlines and had 224 passengers and seven crew members on board.
Frontier said the pilot aborted the takeoff after someone was hit and smoke billowed out of the cabin. The airport confirmed a “brief engine fire” occurred and was extinguished by Denver firefighters.
The passengers were eventually put on another flight to their destination, Los Angeles International Airport.
Passenger Mohammed Hassan, who decided not to take the rescheduled flight, described chaotic scenes on the plane.
“Honestly, I thought I was going to die,” he said. “A lot of people next to me were screaming and crying. I just closed my eyes. At the time, you’re not really thinking about anything, you know? Because we were about to take off and I heard the roar, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. I just felt like something really, really bad had happened.”
Nikhil Taranki said the plane had just left the ground when it returned due to an engine fire and smoke.
“There was this sudden vibration in the plane and then we were about to take off,” Taranki said. “I think our wheels came off the ground and we went down immediately. The engine caught fire. There were a lot of sparks. It stopped immediately. When we saw the sparks on the plane, the smoke completely filled the cabin. It was very difficult to breathe.”
Passengers are told to remain in their seats for about three or four minutes before the exits open and the exit begins, Taranki said.
“This was never supposed to happen,” Taranki said. “Someone has to take responsibility. That’s what I’m saying.”
Omnasch Agarwal said he heard the noise and felt shaking while he was half asleep during takeoff.
“I woke up and I saw, on my right side, a bright orange light coming through,” Agarwal said. “Everyone started screaming. It was a very strange atmosphere and then sparks flew and then it caught fire.”
He said there was a sense of panic as passengers were told to stay in their seats.
“We heard the news about staying seated,” Agarwal said. “So in my mind, I was like, obviously the engine is on fire, but, what to do? We couldn’t stand up. We had to stay in our seats. We couldn’t unbuckle our seat belts. It was… just a weird time.”
He said people continued screaming for about two minutes until the captain announced they could stand up and leave the plane.
Karen Moon said passengers were left on the grass next to the runway for a long time while crews worked to control the situation.
“It was very confusing at first,” Moon said. “We had to stay in the fields and then they had buses and brought us in and then there was this long wait and, you know, they could do anything.”
Moon Jae-in also said that many passengers on the plane were unable to take out their luggage.
“A lot of us have stuff on the plane, but they can’t get into the plane because they have to investigate,” Moon said. “So now our luggage… they took all our information, so they were trying really hard to get the luggage to us as quickly as possible, but they were nice to us.”
Moon Jae-in said the whole situation was unfortunate, but it could have ended much worse for those on board.
“Of course, when you know what happened, you find it very scary and very sad,” Moon said. “You know, I feel bad for the pilot. But we’re alive. Nothing happened to us except a little inconvenience. We’re alive, and that’s a good thing, right?”
Franco Valera, who was traveling with his sister and girlfriend, said he was just trying to stay calm when the panic started.
“I was just trying to relax because everyone was screaming and people were on their feet,” Valera said. “It was a little scary. I mean, this was our first trip alone since we were seven, so it’s been a long time. But yeah, it was pretty scary. It was really weird because I didn’t expect it to happen. I thought we hit someone, a car.”
Kimberly Randall said he fears the damage could be worse.
We actually thought, I felt like things were going to explode,” Randall said. “They were trying to get us to calm down, calm down, calm down, because people were so panicked. “
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. Denver police said they are also assisting in the investigation.
