DENVER — The gun magazine found on a Frontier flight departing from Denver International Airport on Sunday likely belonged to a law enforcement officer who left it on a previous flight, a Frontier official said Monday morning after a preliminary investigation.
Passengers were deplaned Sunday evening after the mag was found on the flight scheduled from Denver to Phoenix, a Frontier spokesperson confirmed earlier Monday. It's the second incident in days involving a Frontier flight at Denver International Airport.
Those on the plane were rescreened "as a matter of precaution," the spokesperson said. There were no findings in a security sweep of the plane, the spokesperson said.
▶ Denver7's Allie Jennerjahn speaks with a passenger who was on the flight
Denver7 has also reached out to the FBI, which Denver Police Department officials said was leading the investigation into the incident.
Before Frontier officials had announced preliminary investigation findings that the gun magazine belonged to a law enforcement official, a TSA union spokesperson told Denver7 they hadn't yet heard about the incident and were working to learn more.
"Finding a magazine on a plane means we missed it," they wrote in an email early Monday. "Not good."
An airport spokesperson said the security incident impacted only passengers on that flight and did not impact the rest of the airport.
Passengers on the flight, originally scheduled for Sunday around 8 p.m., were rebooked for a Monday flight around 6:30 a.m., per Flight Aware, leaving passengers stuck in Denver overnight. The Frontier spokesperson said the flight crew had exceeded their duty time.
Rashon Hammonds was one of those passengers. He said everyone was deplaned and then escorted by police back to TSA.
"They never told us why. And then even more so, like, once we got through TSA, that was it. There was no more instruction after, so everybody's just standing outside of TSA, like, do we go back to the terminal? You know, do we get on the flight? And then that's when we got an email from Frontier saying that our plane was completely canceled and that we wouldn't get back on at six o'clock this morning," Hammonds said.
He added some people tried to get refunds, but said Frontier has denied those requests thus far.
"The Frontier gate attendant just told us that it was not Frontier's fault, and they couldn't be held responsible," Hammonds said. "We weren't getting any compensation at all."
Hammonds did tell Denver7 he got a $15 reimbursement voucher. He also confirmed making it to his final destination Monday morning.
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The incident comes just days after a person was killed after jumping a perimeter fence and being hit by a Frontier plane on Friday. The person has not been identified and is not believed to be an airport employee.
This is a developing story that will be updated as Denver7 works to learn more.
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