A person was killed at Denver International Airport after trespassing onto a runway and being sucked into a Frontier Airlines jet engine Friday night — just hours after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy appeared on Fox News to promote a family road trip reality series he'd been secretly filming for seven months while running the Department of Transportation.
The pilot's radio call captured the moment of impact.
"Tower, Frontier 4345, we're stopping on the runway. Uh, we just hit somebody… we have an engine fire," the pilot told air traffic control. "I do have limbs on the runway. ... There appear to be human remains on the runway."
The airport said the person had trespassed onto the runway just two minutes before being fatally struck. An official told ABC News he was consumed by one of the engines. Twelve people were injured and five were taken to hospital.
Duffy issued a statement early Saturday, leading with a warning rather than condolences.
"No one should EVER trespass on an airport," he wrote.
"Late last night, a trespasser breached airport security at Denver Int'l Airport, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway," Duffy continued. "The trespasser on the runway was then struck by Frontier Airlines Flight 4345 during takeoff at high speed. The pilot stopped takeoff procedures immediately."
The deadly incident came just one day after a Delta Air Lines employee died when an airport tug crashed into a jet bridge at Orlando International Airport.
The back-to-back tragedies have intensified scrutiny of Duffy, a former reality TV star turned Trump Cabinet official who revealed Friday on Fox & Friends that he had spent more than half his tenure as transportation secretary filming a road trip documentary called The Great American Road Trip with his wife, Fox News weekend host Rachel Campos-Duffy, and two of their nine children.
The DOT maintained that Duffy's seven-month filming was done "in small, one-day or two stops" and that "production costs were paid for by the Great American Road Trip, Inc., not taxpayers." Corporate sponsors for the project include Boeing, Toyota, Shell, Google, Comcast and United Airlines — companies Duffy is supposed to regulate.
Late last night, a trespasser breached airport security at Denver Int’l Airport, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway.
The trespasser on the runway was then struck by Frontier Airlines Flight 4345 during takeoff at high speed. The pilot stopped… https://t.co/x2oVY1b0AH
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 9, 2026
