The pilots of a Frontier Airlines plane were forced to abort a takeoff at Denver International Airport late Friday after what they described as a collision with a person on the runway, the airline said.<\/p>\n
The Airbus A321 jet, with 224 passengers and seven crew members, was leaving on Flight 4345 to Los Angeles International Airport when the collision happened, Frontier Airlines said in a statement. Smoke was then reported from inside the plane and the passengers were safely evacuated using emergency slides as a precaution, it added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re stopping on the runway,\u201d a pilot told the air traffic control tower, according to a recording posted by the ATC.com app. \u201cWe just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.\u201d Later, a pilot told the tower that \u201can individual was walking across the runway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crew told air traffic control that it was evacuating the plane on the runway because of smoke inside.<\/p>\n
Denver airport said in a statement that the episode happened about 11:20 p.m. and that firefighters had put out an engine fire on the plane. The passengers were taken back to the terminal by bus, it added.<\/p>\n
The plane came to a sudden stop on the runway soon after it had started accelerating for takeoff, according to a data replay<\/a> from the tracking website Flightradar24.<\/p>\n The airport and the airline did not provide any details about the identity or condition of the person the pilots said was struck.<\/p>\n Frontier\u2019s headquarters are in Denver. The airline and the airport both said that investigations were underway. The airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified.<\/p>\n In a statement, the N.T.S.B. said that it was working to gather information alongside the Federal Aviation Administration and local agencies.<\/p>\n