Frontier Airlines Agent Blames Passenger For Not Taking Bags During Emergency Evacuation

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I’ve talked about selfish passengers taking their bags during an emergency evacuation in the past, noting how such actions could have deadly consequences. It seems a Frontier Airlines call center agent doesn’t believe this, and went so far as to blame a passenger for not taking their bags during a recent evacuation after the aircraft they were in struck a person on the runway.

On May 8, 2026, Frontier Airlines flight 4345 (operated with an Airbus A321neo, and scheduled to fly from Denver to Los Angeles) was forced to abort its takeoff after the aircraft’s right engine struck someone walking on the runway. In a later update, Frontier noted that the individual jumped over a perimeter fence about two minutes prior to the collision.

As a result, the pilots brought the aircraft to a stop, with cabin crew deploying the emergency slides once the aircraft was shut down. In typical fashion, the majority of passengers exited the aircraft with everything but the kitchen sink. One of the passengers who actually obeyed the flight attendant’s instructions, recounted her events from that night, and alleged that a Frontier customer service agent blamed her for leaving her belongings behind, suggesting that she should have taken all her bags during the evacuation.

According to the post on Reddit (with the details being verified by Jalopnik), Chloe Kuns was traveling with her infant daughter in seat 5C, and documented the incident as well as issues she faced after. She praised the cabin crew members and pilots for their professional response to the matter, but noted that several passengers jumped down the emergency slides with their carry-on bags, resulting in the evacuation process taking much longer than it should have.

Unlike many others, Kuns followed instructions and left all belongings behind, including her wallet, ID, keys, medication, car seat, diaper bag, and baby supplies. As a result, she and her baby struggled for hours afterward in the airport without diapers, wipes, formula, a bottle, or other essentials. Thankfully Denver airport staff were eventually able to source diapers and wipes to help her baby out.

According to the mother, another passenger, a type 1 diabetic, reportedly had to leave insulin behind, and EMTs did not have insulin available at the airport.

All passengers on board the affected flight were automatically rebooked on a 6 a.m. flight the next morning, and made it safely to Los Angeles. However, a major problem would arise when she called customer service to discuss recovering her items. According to the post, the agent on the phone allegedly told her that the airline was not responsible for the lost items, and that that she should have taken them with her during the evacuation.

This advice goes against everything that is preached about in safety videos, and can be deemed illegal as passengers taking bags during an emergency is technically not allowed under U.S. law 49 U.S.C. § 46504. If a passenger threatens, intimidates, or obstructs crew from carrying out their duties while they’re trying to evacuate the aircraft, the passenger could liable in this instance for obstruction (i.e. delaying the evacuation process as a result of them taking their bags out of the overhead bins).

Kuns was also scheduled to fly home to Michigan, but asked for this flight to be pushed back without penalty as she was trying to organize for the recovery of her items. The same agent allegedly said that as the ticket was booked using a GoWild pass (an all-you-can-fly type pass with certain restrictions), she would either have to wait a further 24 hours in Los Angeles given the limited number of GoWild pass flights, or pay full price for a regular ticket (with a $15 credit being applied for the refund of the GoWild pass flight which she would have missed).

After four hours of back and forth with various customer support agents, Kuns said she was able to get a new flight booked while avoiding being charged hundreds of dollars. However, no further information was provided regarding the items left on the original aircraft.

Based on this testimonial, it seems Frontier Airlines massively dropped the ball here, with its customer support agent following its rules too rigidly regarding rebooking. As for the recommendation that items be taken during an evacuation, that is simply unheard of and warrants an investigation from regulatory bodies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Kuns did note that this incident was specific to Frontier’s call center, as she praised their airport’s ground staff for being very supportive during the incident.

Sign up for the free Gate Checked newsletter here sent three times weekly.

Add as preferred source on Google

Follow on WhatsApp