A father and his two sons on a flight to Los Angeles thought they were “going to die” when their Frontier jet struck a pedestrian on the runway — as they described the grisly ordeal.

Nebraskan John Anthens, 56, thought he and his two sons, Jacob, 30, and Levi, 19, weren’t going to make in the seconds after the unidentified person got sucked into their plane’s engine Friday night at Denver International Airport.

The plane managed to put the nose down and come to a stop. The father and two sons say they sat in their seats choking in thick black smoke from the fire, and flight attendants commanded people to stay in their seats.Courtesy of John Anthens
“When the engine blew up, I thought, ‘Oh sh-t, we’re all going to die,” John Anthens said.

The dad said he felt the nose of the plane pitch up before what sounded like a “bomb” rocking the cabin.

Jacob said his father was looking out the window when the person on the runway approached the plane — and met a gruesome end.

John and Jacob smiling outdoors, with Jacob holding a golf club.
John poses on the left with Jacob, right.Courtesy of John Anthens
“My dad said when the engine fire went up, he was able to see the legs of a human spinning around in the engine…which sounds like emotional trauma to me,” Jacob explained.
The three made it off the plane okay, with John pausing to take photos of the bloody aftermath in the engine and his younger son, Levi, helping people slide off the plane.Courtesy of John Athens
The father and sons sat in their seats choking on smoke from the engine fire, with flight attendants telling people to stay in their seats.

“I would say the majority of people didn’t know what was going on or what happened, but there was just a big explosion,” John said. “And obviously, you hear a big explosion, people start screaming, kids are crying, and it was horrific.”

When the three made it off the plane, John stopped to take photos of the bloody aftermath as Levi helped people get down the inflatable evacuation slide.


Courtesy of John Athens
Nobody in the family got much sleep that night and they ultimately decided to cancel their first-ever trip to California over the traumatic experience.

John and Jacob had been planning to compete in a Pokémon Go tournament at the LA Convention Center, where Jacob had hoped to advance.

“I thought I had a real chance to make some noise there,” he said.

“We were going to go have some fun, and never got that opportunity,” John added.


Anthens said he was traveling to Los Angeles to play in a Pokémon Go tournament with Jacob at the LA Convention Center.Courtesy of John Athens

As of Saturday morning, the family making the eight-hour drive back to Omaha in a rental car, opting out of another flight.

But they planned to one pit stop on the way back — to go whitewater rafting.

“[Need to] get our mind on something other than somebody blowing up in an engine,” John said.