PARMA, Italy (AP) — Carlos Cuesta has become the youngest coach in Serie A in nearly a century after being hired by Parma on Thursday.
It is the 29-year-old Cuesta’s first role as a head coach after spending the past five years as an assistant at English Premier League club Arsenal.
Parma announced that Cuesta signed a two-year contract with the option of a third year.
Cuesta has experience in Italy, having been an assistant coach with the under-17 team at Juventus for two years. He also worked with Atletico Madrid's youth teams prior to that.
Cuesta, a Mallorca native, is the second-youngest coach ever to work in the Italian top flight.
In 1939, Elio Loschi was 29 years, 9 months, 20 days old when he took charge of his first match as player-coach at Triestina.
Cuesta will be 30 years, 26 days old when he takes to the dugout for Parma’s first match, coincidentally also against Juventus.
Italian media reported that Cuesta took his first steps into coaching when he was studying in Madrid. He messaged members of the technical staff of both the city's teams on social media until the then-coach of Atletico's under-12 team responded.
Former Parma coach Cristian Chivu left the club last week, after steering the team to Serie A safety, to take over at Inter Milan.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Arsenal assistant coach Carlos Cuesta in Wolverhampton, England, on Jan. 25, 2025. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
DENVER (AP) — A Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a pedestrian on the runway of the Denver International Airport during takeoff, airport authorities said, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate.
The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday," the airport's official X account wrote.
A spokesperson for the airport said the pedestrian, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.
“We're stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”
The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now" before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”
Frontier Airlines said in a statement flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the crash with the pedestrian.
“The Airbus A321 was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members,” the airline said. “We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”
Passengers were then evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. The airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to local hospitals.
Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, will remain closed while an investigation is conducted. It is expected to open later today.
The pedestrian death came a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, the airline said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident nor the name of the employee.
“We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,” the airline said. "We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”
FILE - A Frontier Airlines jetliner taxis down a runway for take off from Denver International airport on Nov. 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
