{"id":15779,"date":"2026-05-12T06:01:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/video-shows-passenger-jet-fatally-strike-person-on-denver-airport-runway-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:01:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:01:58","slug":"video-shows-passenger-jet-fatally-strike-person-on-denver-airport-runway-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/video-shows-passenger-jet-fatally-strike-person-on-denver-airport-runway-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Video shows passenger jet fatally strike person on Denver airport runway – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
Video released Sunday by airport officials shows the moment a Frontier passenger jet struck a person<\/a> on a Denver International Airport runway.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
The black-and-white security video shows a figure approaching a runway and starting to cross it, seemingly at walking pace, when the aircraft streaks into view. The narrow-body Airbus A321 sweeps in from the left as the person vanishes and one of the plane\u2019s engines catches fire.
The collision happened at 11:19 p.m. Friday local time as the Frontier aircraft appeared to be moving rapidly down the runway en route to takeoff for a scheduled flight to Los Angeles International Airport, Denver International Airport said.
The city and county of Denver\u2019s Aviation Department released the video upon a public records request.
Frontier said smoke entered the aircraft\u2019s cabin as the flight was aborted. The plane was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members.
Kevin Cartas, who was on the flight, described hearing an explosion during takeoff Friday, then seeing black smoke fill the cabin as bright orange flames emanated from the engine.
\u201cIt was instantaneous panic, that\u2019s what was happening,\u201d Cartas told NBC News. \u201cScreams, crying, yelling, everyone was freaking out because it was just jarring, the noise, how loud this explosion was.\u201d
All Cartas could think about was his wife and son and celebrating their first Mother\u2019s Day together.
\u201cThis is not how I wanted my wife to find out if something went worse,\u201d he said. <\/strong>
Passenger Nikil Thalanki told NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver<\/a> that he felt the aircraft begin to lift for takeoff when the collision took place.
\u201cWe immediately came back down, and there was fire on the engine,\u201d he said. \u201cSmoke filled the cabin, completely. It was super hard to breathe.\u201d
Those on board were evacuated on inflatable evacuation slides, Thalanki said. The airport said 12 people reported minor injuries, with five ending up at hospitals.
Cartas said the evacuation process lacked organization, with crew members sharing conflicting messaging, including to head to an exit and remain in their seats. Once everyone was off the plane, it took a couple hours to get back to the terminal, he said.
\u201cAt 1:19 a.m., we walked through the terminal and it was freezing out there,\u201d Cartas said.
While waiting in the field, Cartas said, some passengers learned that the plane had struck an individual after someone made a call to a family member.
\u201cWe\u2019re in disbelief,\u201d Cartas said, adding that he couldn\u2019t fathom how the individual got onto the tarmac.
The airport said it will review security along its roughly 36 miles of perimeter fencing.
In a statement Sunday, airport CEO Phil Washington characterized the person who was killed as a trespasser. Airport officials said the person did not appear to be an employee of the facility.
Ryann Money, a spokesperson for the Denver Medical Examiner\u2019s Office, said by email that the person\u2019s name, as well as the cause and manner of death, will be released to the public \u201conce our investigation is complete and next of kin have been notified.\u201d
A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information about the collision. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating.
Cartas didn\u2019t get back to his California home until around 7 a.m. Saturday. While he\u2019s very happy to be alive, he questions how something like this could happen.
\u201cThere should have been monitoring, there should have been some kind of defense system, or they had thermal images,\u201d he said.
\u201cI know we can\u2019t change the past, but I think there should be some executive actions that we change for the future.\u201d
Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Cristian Santana is an Emmy-nominated Journalist at NBC News covering crime, technology and domestic issues.
Follow on Bluesky<\/a>\u00a0
<\/a><\/em>
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeVideo released Sunday by airport officials shows the moment a Frontier passenger jet struck a person on a Denver International Airport runway.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The black-and-white security video shows a figure approaching a runway and starting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}