Questions about DIA’s perimeter security grow after deadly Frontier Airlines runway incident

It was a terrifying night at Denver International Airport — and now the questions are coming fast.

As you’ve probably heard by now, a person jumped the perimeter fence at DIA late Friday night and was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane that was in the middle of its takeoff roll. The plane, bound for Los Angeles with 224 passengers and seven crew members on board — 231 souls total — struck the individual approximately two minutes after the fence was breached, triggering an engine fire and a chaotic emergency evacuation via the plane’s slides. Twelve passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to local hospitals.

Now, as the shock settles in, aviation experts and investigators are asking the uncomfortable question: How does something like this happen at one of the busiest airports in the country?

Aviation expert and former National Transportation Safety Board official Greg Feith told 9News the sheer size of DIA’s property is part of the problem. “One of the biggest issues is how vast it is,” he said. “There are miles and miles of fence and property — very obscure places, places that nobody expects to see on a regular basis.”Feith also pointed out a significant surveillance gap, noting that “airports don’t typically have closed-circuit TVs monitoring fence lines” — and suggested that may need to change.

Investigators are also asking how often DIA sweeps its perimeter for breaches, and whether any security cameras actually captured the trespasser before the tragedy unfolded. For what it’s worth, DIA did check the exterior fence line after the incident and found it to be intact — meaning the person apparently found a way through without leaving an obvious breach.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been notified and is actively investigating, with a focus not only on how the perimeter was breached, but also on the emergency evacuation itself — an area the NTSB has flagged concerns about in recent years, particularly when panicked passengers grab carry-on bags before exiting. Feith says he expects answers relatively quickly. “I think this will be a very quick investigation — probably within a week or two, we should have some very good information from the NTSB, the FAA, and even Denver International,” he said.

DIA spokesperson Alex Washington didn’t mince words in a statement, calling what happened “a horrible and preventable tragedy that has affected many due to the actions of one person who apparently trespassed at an airport and lost their life as a result.” The unidentified individual is not believed to have been an airport employee.

For the passengers on board, the trauma was real. “Honestly, I thought I was going to die,” passenger Mohamed Hassan told 9News. “A lot of people next to me were screaming and crying.” Another passenger, Kimberly Randle, described the scene after the engine fire erupted. “In a few minutes, they finally opened the door. People were running to get out of the plane,” she said. “It was chaos everywhere.”

The runway where it all happened — 17L — has since reopened, but the bigger questions about how a person can breach the perimeter of a major international airport and make it all the way to an active runway are very much still open.