Denver International Airport is conducting a security evaluation after a one that jumped over a fence into a runway was struck and killed by a plane throughout takeoff late Friday.
The deadly incident has drawn scrutiny to the airport’s safety protocols – and highlighted the challenges of securing a facility twice the size of Manhattan.
The pedestrian, who has not been recognized, was killed simply two minutes after they jumped a perimeter fence and crossed a runway at the airport. The pilots of the Frontier Airlines Airbus, which was headed to Los Angeles, rapidly aborted takeoff. Twelve folks have been injured throughout the incident.
Surveillance video taken earlier than the collision reveals a blurry determine – tiny compared to the jet and the expanse of land round them – standing on the runway.
Then the determine is overtaken by the airplane, engulfed in flames.
Person who jumped perimeter fence is hit and killed by Frontier airplane throughout takeoff on Denver runway
“We’re stopping on the runway,” a pilot stated, in response to audio from ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The airport stated it will “perform an incident analysis and after action in the coming days which will include reviewing the ongoing investigation, including our perimeter security program.”
There are 36 miles of perimeter fence at the airport, in response to its assertion, and workers carry out steady inspections.
Denver International Airport is the nation’s third busiest by passengers, behind solely Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth.
And it’s large: At 53 sq. miles, the airport is bigger than San Francisco, according to its website.
That makes securing its services a challenge, in response to specialists.
“The more expansive the land area of an airport, the more perimeter to defend, the more remote areas, and the more complex terrain, all of which provide more opportunities for unauthorized entry,” defined William Rankin, an adjunct professor at Florida Institute of Technology who researches airport administration and security.
Still, pedestrian incursions are extraordinarily uncommon, Rankin stated. Publicly accessible knowledge reveals there are simply a handful of pedestrian incursions – between zero to 5 – annually on common, he stated.
Fatal pedestrian-aircraft collisions like Friday evening’s are even rarer, taking place lower than as soon as per yr on common, he stated.
The incident “was an extremely rare event and should not make the public less confident in the security of the major US airports,” Rankin stated.
As uncommon as pedestrian incursions are, this isn’t the first time somebody has breached a perimeter fence at the Denver airport.
Eight folks – together with each pedestrians and drivers – breached the fence between 2004 and 2015, an investigation by The Associated Press discovered.
At the time, an airport spokesperson stated, “We believe many folks do not realize they are even on airport property — it looks like farmland and a breach may be miles and miles away from a runway or the terminal.”
The AP discovered 268 perimeter breaches throughout the nation throughout the similar interval. They span from intentional stowaways to seemingly unintentional trespassing. The Denver incidents included a drunk 28-year-old who drove by means of a perimeter fence and a man who climbed the fence and stated he was on his approach to work, according to the Denver Post.
FAA data shows there have been 70 “vehicle/pedestrian deviations” at airports throughout the US in the first quarter of 2026.
Some breaches simply trigger embarrassment for airport administration – like when a stranded jet skier swam to shore and climbed a fence at New York City’s JFK airport, bypassing a $100 million safety system. He walked throughout not less than one runway seemingly undetected.
But in different situations, folks have been killed after airport safety breaches.
In 2020, a man was struck and killed by a industrial jet touchdown at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, according to the AP. The 22-year-old didn’t have a security badge and it was unclear how he obtained onto the runway.
A 30-year-old man ran onto the runway at Salt Lake City International Airport in 2023. He was discovered unconscious inside a Delta jet engine and died at the scene, prompting investigations from federal and native authorities.
The breaches underscore the problem of airport safety. The FAA recommends safety fencing “to slow the access of pedestrians and vehicles onto an airport” and federal regulations require airports set up “safeguards to prevent inadvertent entry to the movement area by unauthorized persons or vehicles” to be licensed.
Airport safety fences can fluctuate, at a minimal, from six to eight toes, relying on the particular plan authorised by the Transportation Security Administration, in response to Jeffrey Price, a professor of aviation at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. They have to be chain hyperlink with barbed wire on prime, he stated.
Installing fences larger than the minimal requirement can rapidly develop into costly, Price stated.
Many airports use surveillance cameras to observe their perimeter fences. TSA doesn’t mandate airports use “perimeter intrusion detection systems,” which may detect somebody attempting to breach the fence, in response to Price.
The Denver airport says it makes use of “a combination of technology” to examine its perimeter fence.
Monitoring the airport’s 36 miles of perimeter fencing is nonetheless seemingly tough. “Denver Airport is very large and it can be challenging to monitor all potential breaches of existing security perimeter systems,” Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, an adjunct professor of aviation at the University of North Dakota, informed NCS.
For airport authorities, the subsequent cease is reviewing all of the security procedures meant to stop an incident like Friday evening’s.
Adjekum stated the airport’s incident evaluation would seemingly contain a overview of the airport’s inside security processes – the programs that guarantee safety at the apron (the place planes are parked, refueled, and loaded), taxiways, runways and different areas.
“They will review security perimeter fencing and other surveillance systems to prevent unauthorized access by people and itinerant wildlife, which can lead to runway and taxiway incursions,” he stated.
“They will review emergency response capabilities and time for aircraft emergencies on the runway or taxiway,” he went on. “They will review their safety management systems (SMS) policies to determine emergent hazards and risks due to increased operational tempo, changes in seasons, wildlife and bird-strike hazards, and unauthorized entry by persons into restricted areas despite existing safety controls.”
Adjekum stated it could have been near inconceivable for the crew to see the individual on the runway throughout takeoff.
The incident is “unfortunate and tragic,” he stated.