Frontier A321 Hits Person on Runway During Takeoff | Captain Steeeve

We begin tonight with the search for answers after another scary moment at an American airport, this time Denver.

Tonight the NTSB is investigating after a person was hit and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane on the runway.

With tragedy strikes at Denver International Airport over the weekend, a man wandered onto the runway and was struck by an airplane on its takeoff roll.This leaves us with more questions really than answers.The questions that we're going to try to answer in this video, and it's again, try to answer, is how could something like this have happened?Could it have been prevented?I don't know.Has it happened before?

The answer will be surprising to you.Could the pilots have avoided this tragedy?And again, we'll give you a whole rundown on could they have.It's doubtful, but you know, maybe.And then the answer to try to answer the question why.Why would something like this take place?

Here's what we know so far.DIA Airport, Denver International Airport, to LAX Frontier 4345 is rolling down runway 17L just after clear for takeoff at 1130 p .m.It's dark in Colorado at that time and they've got all their lights on.They're taking off down the runway.and a few seconds into their takeoff roll, they encounter a human being on the runway.

And I'm going to show you some video that's going to describe the normal departure here, and then we're going to stop it, and I'm going to show you some video.And just a trigger warning, my friends, there are some disturbing videos that may not be suitable for all viewers, but we'll talk about that more here in just a minute.Here's the ATC as Frontier 43 -45 is cleared for takeoff.

Cleared by 4345 Denver, RNF to GOROC, Runway 17L, cleared for takeoff.

RNF, GOROC, Runway 17L, cleared for takeoff, route tier 4345.

they turn all their lights on, they take the runway, they start their takeoff roll, and as they start their takeoff roll, they get to a certain point, and we're going to stop it right there.It takes probably about 15 to 20 seconds, I think, maybe even a little bit longer than that, more like 30 to 40 for them to get up to speed.And then somewhere just before the V1 speed, that go -no -go speed, and they're going pretty fast, probably 120 miles an hour at this point, they encounter a person on the runway.Now, I've encountered deer, I've encountered, you know, little foxes, rabbits a lot of times.on the runway.Sometimes you'd go right over them and miss them, but a human being would be a shocking thing to view.

I'm going to show you next a video now taken from outside the aircraft.This is infrared technology.You're going to see a human being walking onto the runway.Now, I just want to warn you, this might not be suitable for all viewers.I also want to say this.If you're dealing with thoughts of self -harm, And on any level, there's an 800 number for you to call in the description below.

We want you to take advantage of that.This is not going to be suitable for all viewers, but we want you to reach out.And there's somebody there that wants to talk to you, and so please dial that 800 number if you have any thoughts of self -harm at all.And I also want to say to the pilots, this must have been just horrible in the extreme, because it's called a flashbulb memory.There's actually a name for it.And when something tragic happens in front of your eyes, your brain takes a snapshot of it.

And I'm sure that both of the pilots have that snapshot memory because they were very specific about this was a human being that they saw in front of them.If either one of you guyswants to talk to somebody, I'm a trained licensed counselor.I've been counseling for over 30 years.I've counseled thousands of people.I've lived in the world that you live in.

There is an email in the description down below.Please reach out to me.And any of the passengers from that flight, same thing.No, free of charge.Reach out to me. I would love to start a conversation with you.All right, let's watch this next video now as this is the infrared from outside the aircraft.

We're going to stop it just before the point of impact.You can see right here, I'm going to freeze it.There's an individual right here on the runway.That's runway 17 left.They've just hopped the fence.A couple minutes later, they're on the runway, and the airplane is coming.

And we'll stop the video right there.This is kind of hard to watch.It looks like the person is just kind of strolling.And it's just not possible that they didn't know that they were on a runway or that an airplane was coming.I mean, anything is a possibility.But again, we'll talk at the end about the why of all of this.

But it's just a little difficult to fathom that they were out for a stroll around midnight.It's very dark out there.It's a very rural area.We'll talk about how big the airport here is in just a minute, but it's just not conceivable that they wandered onto the runway and didn't see an airplane coming.All those lights and everything, it's just kind of difficult to fathom.But that was the moment from outside the airplane.

Now I'm going to show you the same moment from inside the airplane.Same trigger warning on this, folks, because even though we don't see anything specific, you're going to know the time of impact based on this video that a passenger was taking from inside the airplane.So there they are on the takeoff roll.you can see how fast they were going right there just prior to v1 and here it comes okay let's stop the video there um you can even hear it a little bit and that's the the camera falls to the floor uh They were going real fast.I mean, there was no way for the pilots to stop, for sure.Could they have swerved?

We'll talk about that in a minute.I don't think so.But we'll get to all of that in due time.All right.Now, what happened after they hit?Well, let's go back now to the audio on the airplane.

You can hear the pilots are extremely disturbed.You can hear that the air traffic controller, the tower controller, is extremely disturbed.It's very clear what happened, and there were some early news reports of maybe they hit a deer, maybe they hit some sort of animal on the runway.No, you can tell from their voice that they saw a human being.and how disturbing all of that was.So let me run now.

This is the air traffic control audio from the tower to the airplane just as they hit and they strike this person.Okay, so you can hear the panic in his voice.He keys up the mic at first and just kind of, ah, you know, like, He doesn't even know what to say, and then he says, he gets his call sign out.You got to have the presence of mind to get your call sign out.At the same time, they're stopping, they're rejecting on the runway.We practice this procedure all the time in the simulator.

Every year you go down to training, you practice one reject after another, but doing it for real,after what just happened, your brain is in a different place.That's why the training is so important, because you'll operate the way you train.So this is a muscle reflex almost at this point.At this point, they're just like, We've got an engine fire.We just hit something.

We know what that something was, which is shocking in the extreme.Your brain would just want to check out.But at that point, the training clicks in and the captain brings it into reverse.He slams on the brakes, gets the airplane stopped.At the same time, he's got to key up the PA before he stops and say to the passengers, remain seated, remain seated, remain seated.that's part of his training.

Because there may be a little bit of a panic in the back of the airplane.You're at that speed when you stop, people are like, why did we stop?And they can see that the right engine is on fire.So all of that being said, incredible presence of mind on the part of this crew, but you can hear how much distress they're in.As he says, we just hit somebody and we have an engine fire.Listen.

We just hit somebody.We have an engine fire.

Can you hear the tower controller?The tower controller is like shocked.He's having a hard time getting out.Your brain does something at that moment where it kind of goes into a little bit of a dream state where like I can't I can't process what I'm hearing right now." And again, he kicks into his training, and the first thing out of his mouth is, souls on board and fuel state, right?Because that's what he's been trained to do, fuel on board and souls on board, that sort of thing.

So he gets that part out, good for him, but again, it's difficult for everybody because they're trying to take in the depth of what just took place.Here we go.There's more.

Individual walking across the runway.

Wow.I can't imagine that.This guy is almost in tears.I mean, this is awful.

OK, there's a different voice now.

That's most likely the captain because the captain doesn't have time to relay it through the first officer, but they've brought the airplane to a stop.They've got to make sure that they don't cause a secondary problem.The brakes can overheat and they can lit light on fire as well.So they're assessing everything.They're asking for checklists.They're both going through the gyrations of what did we just see happen in front of us.

At that point, they kick into more training checklist, and they're trying to put out the fire in the engine.That's checklist number one, but that's engine fire on the ground checklist, not engine fire in the air checklist.It's a different checklist.In addition to that, they get a call from the back of the cabin.First of all, the first call is probably, hey, flight, what happened?And they're trying to answer that while they're stopping the airplane.

The second one is, hey, we got smoke back here.All right, great.Now everything shifts again.you know, as though that wasn't enough.So now they have to shift into getting everybody off the aircraft, and you want to get everybody off as safely as you possibly can, because you don't know how bad the smoke is in the back of the airplane.So this crew has a tremendous amount going on.

It's amazing to me that they didn't overload.They didn't just lock up, but they didn't.They kept moving on.This is a great crew.

Okay, we're having ops and emergency vehicles going all the way now.They're about halfway down the runway, one seven left.They're evacuating the runway, the aircraft on the runway.

His voice is so shaky.Okay and that's it.So that's the last we hear from the aircraft.That's the last we hear from tower.Ops gets out there.There's people evacuating now.

They open the slides.A few people were injured and I always say on these videos there's that debate of whether you want to blow the slides and send people down the slides because people will twist ankles and so forth.There may have been some smoke inhalation inside the aircraft.Let me show you.Next the kind of the commotion on the inside of the airplane the amount of smoke and everything else Here we go.You can see smoke in the air People are sadly they're grabbing their stuff out of the overhead why leave it leave it Here's a slide people, you know kind of gawking at the engine everybody's telling to get away get away from the aircraft get away from the aircraft and people coming down the slide.

So some of those people twisted ankles and so forth.I think a few people went to the hospital right after this, but you can see that's what the evacuation part looks like.And all of this happened within, I don't know, less than 60 seconds from striking the person on the runway, to rejecting the takeoff, to dealing with the burning engine, to put the fire out, to call and say we're rejecting, to making the decision to evacuate.Then going through the evacuation checklist, the flight attendants pop the doors, pop the slides, they get everybody off the aircraft, Sadly, people stop and take time to grab their luggage.Folks, don't do that.Get off the aircraft.

You can go back and get your stuff later on.Now, let's answer those questions I asked in the beginning, and we'll do them in reverse order.Could the pilots have avoided this man on the runway?Well, let me show you a video of what it looks like.like on a night takeoff from the cockpit.And there's lots of lights in front of the airplane, but the visibility is pretty limited.

And I'll show you exactly how fast they were going when they encountered a human being on the runway.You don't really swerve an airplane like you could swerve a car.Maybe airplanes much bigger.And those engines are, they're sucking in as much air as they possibly can on that takeoff roll.because they're up at max power.So anything anywhere near those engines is going to get ingested into the engine.

So it would be virtually impossible to swerve enough to avoid a human being.But let me show you what a takeoff roll at night looks like.Right.Here we go.Power gets applied.The airplane starts to roll slowly.

The first call is going to be 80, which means 80 knots.The other pilots going to say check.80 knots takes place right about this speed here.Now they're accelerating 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110.They're not at rotate speed just yet, but right about here, and I'll stop it, right about that speed is where they encounter a person walking on the runway.And at that point, going 120, 125 miles an hour, just prior to rotate speed, there's no stopping that airplane.

And it would be extremely dangerous to try to swerve the airplane.You could a little bit, but it would be over in an instant.And you can tell by the panic in their voice that it just happened so fast that they didn't even have time to react to it.Think about when you're driving down the road and you see a deer in the road or a raccoon or a possum or something, and you don't even have time to react.It's just like that fast.this is two to three times that fast right and you're in an airplane so it's not it's not possible i don't think that they could have avoided this now the next question is this has this ever happened before and the answer to that is yes sadly about six years ago southwest airlines was going into austin texas on runway 18 right Theirs was an encounter with a person on the runway on landing, not on the takeoff roll, a little bit different, but they're cleared for landing at Austin on 18R SW 1392.

As they're landing, they strike a human being on the runway.There's no explanation for why the person was there.They just were the dialogue back and forth between them and the tower was, the tower says, where was the person?The airplane just says, well, behind us now.So, they're trying to put it together.They weren't 100 % sure that they saw a person.

They're 100 % sure here in Denver that they saw it because they say it right away, right from the beginning, that that's what happened.So, it has happened before.It's very tragic every time it happens and very sad.The next question is this, Could it have been prevented?And I think the answer to that is doubtful.It's very doubtful that this could have been prevented.

Denver Airport is the largest in the country by geography.It's 53 square miles.That's a huge airport.Just to put fencing around that airport is incredibly intense.And so there are points, if you ever went out to Denver and driven out of that airport or driven into that airport, it's extremely rural going into DIA and most of the roads around the perimeter fence are just gravel roads.So how did this person get there?

We're going to find out in the days and weeks to come.It may have been that they drove up, they might have walked up, they might have biked up.It's going to be a long walk to get to where they were.They were on the extreme eastern portion of the airport.The early reports are telling usthat they scaled the fence.

They could have clipped the fence.Now, aren't there sensors to let people know that?Some airports there are.I'm not sure about Denver.It's such a big airport that I don't know if they've got sensors everywhere to detect that stuff, and it doesn't make any difference.The distance, and I'll show you a picture here, all right?

Here's a still photo.Runway 17 left.There's the fence.Now you say, well, isn't there barbed wire on the top of the fence?Yeah, there is barbed wire right on the top of the fence.But look here, between these two fence poles, there's no barbed wire.

And so you could climb the fence and just kind of scoot in between over the barbed wire.And then the runway is, and I'll show you an airplane on that same runway.There's a still photo.You can see the fence in the foreground, right?And it's just a short walk, maybe a minute.not even that long to get up on runway 17L.

And so it'd be very easy to do.Even if you detected it on a sensor and you sent a car out there, it would take longer for the people to get out than the individuals to walk onto the runway.And if there was an airplane already cleared for takeoff, then the story would be told.All right.How could something like this happen?Well, It's not likely that it could be prevented altogether.

I think the first reaction we have is, you know, could there have been something we have done to prevent something like this?I don't think so.I think it's virtually impossible.It's also not likely that this was a mistake.Out for a stroll at almost midnight in the pitch black, going through gravel roads, You'd have to scale a fence or cut a fence to get through.No evidence that they cut the fence.

They probably scaled it.And then walking onto an active airport and an active runway would imply, I think on some level, that that was intentional.You don't just stroll out onto an active airport.You'd have to drive or bike or somehow get yourself there, then hop the fence.All of it is just kind of a little bit too much to fathom.And then the airplane that's coming at you is lit up like a Christmas tree.

I mean, there's every light you can imagine.It is really bright out in front of the airplane for the pilots to get as much visibility as they can.not possible that you wouldn't see the airplane coming.Now, anything is a possibility.The final question is, why did this happen?And I think it's very difficult for us to even come up with any answer to that.

The big answer to that is, it's just unknown.You know, was the person on drugs, were they out of their mind?I don't know.We don't know any of those things.All we know is it didn't happen by mistake.There was too much that had to go into this for this person to just be kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think we can count that one out.But at the same time, it's just simply unknown.There's just too many And as I said at the beginning of the video, if you've had any thoughts of self -harm, there's an 800 number below.Please call that number.And if you are one of the pilots or you know one of the pilots, a lot of people watch these videos, and if you're one of the crew, the cabin crew, the cockpit crew, or one of the passengers on that flight and you'd like to talk to somebody who understands, who has training, please email me down below and I will reach back out to you.and we'll start that conversation.

But I'm going to ask you now, as we wrap this up, to pray for the pilots.This must be absolutely awful for them.They've got that flashbulb picture in their mind that they'll never get rid of.And pray for the families of this man.This man, or I'm assuming it's a man, it might be a woman, this individual who's on the runway, no doubt has a family.and they're getting the bad news now, and also the people on the airplane, the passengers.

So there's a bunch of prayers to go around as we look back over this tragedy in Denver this weekend and hope that it never happens again.Well, now you know.I'm Captain Steve.