Denver International Airport looks to create ‘better evacuation’ process after Frontier incident

Late Friday night, more than 200 people sat alongside the tarmac at Denver International Airport. Their Frontier flight stopped during take-off after hitting a person. KCNC via CNN Newsource

DENVER (KCNC) -- Late Friday night, more than 200 people sat alongside the tarmac at Denver International Airport. Their Frontier flight stopped during take-off after hitting a person. Thermal imaging shows a man walking onto the runway moments before getting pulled into the engine.

Adam Berger was on that flight.

“I had been pretty stoic about the situation, but I just burst into tears when I saw that footage, because, I mean, the fact that it did take someone’s life in the process,” he said.

Berger saw the explosion before smoke began filling the cabin.

“All of us were kind of covering our mouths trying to, you know, like, not breathe all this in. Within five to seven minutes, they had popped the doors,” Berger said.

Passengers went down emergency slides, where a few got hurt. In the chaos, Berger said not everyone knew what to do.

“I also was in shock in the moment, and not grabbing my small bag was not something that was going through my mind... There wasn’t a ton of people dictating what we should do in that capacity,” Berger said.

In videos taken inside the cabin, it’s clear that many passengers took their smaller bags.

Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington said in a press conference Tuesday, “Kind of tough for us to answer about what went on within the aircraft... We are working with Frontier Airlines to determine what we can do as an airport to facilitate, sort of, a better evacuation.”

The airport is also looking at its security procedures and says that proper alarms went off. Berger acknowledged how rare this situation is.

“If someone is that determined, it’s pretty difficult to stop them,” Berger said, “I’m realistic about these things, I feel, and if they’re passing their security checks, I can’t ask for that much more.”

Now Berger credits the pilot for stopping that takeoff and protecting passengers on board.

“Thank you. I mean, like it could have gone very differently, obviously. And I mean, could have totally changed all of our lives far more than it did,” Berger said.

The investigation into the incident is ongoing.