{"id":228866,"date":"2026-05-12T18:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228866\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:29:11","slug":"grim-details-in-death-of-trespasser-mutilated-by-frontier-airlines-jet-engine-at-denver-airport-revealed-by-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228866\/","title":{"rendered":"Grim details in death of trespasser mutilated by Frontier Airlines jet engine at Denver Airport revealed by officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man who was horrifically mangled by a jet engine after stepping in front of a Frontier Airlines plane<\/a> at Denver International Airport on Friday died by suicide, authorities revealed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Michael Mott, 41, was seeking to end his life when he calmly walked across the runway while the aircraft barreled toward him<\/a>, according to video of the grisly scene and a representative for the Denver City and County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The cause of death was determined to be multiple blunt and sharp force injuries, Chief Medical Examiner Sterling McLaren said during a news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Passengers are escorted off the Frontier flight after the plane hit a person. The man was sucked into one of the engines of the plane. Debris is seen on the engine. AP<\/p>\n

A suicide note has not been recovered, according to Denver Police Department Chief Ron Thomas, who said that Mott wasn\u2019t a stranger to metro cops.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently are looking for any notes, computers, anything like that, trying to identify places where he most recently was,\u201d he said during the news conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Horrifying security video of the runway showed Mott get sucked into one of the engines of the Airbus A-321neo mid-takeoff.<\/p>\n

He had jumped the perimeter fence and was on the tarmac before colliding with the plane at 11:19 p.m., the airport confirmed.<\/a><\/p>\n

A Frontier Airlines jetliner outside Denver\u2019s airport on May 9, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

Denver International Airport chief executive officer Phil Washington said during the news conference that an alert went off around nine minutes earlier, when an airport operator on duty \u201creviewed the alarm and identified a herd of deer just outside of the perimeter fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did not initially see the trespasser,\u201d Washington said. \u201cThe camera view was alternating between the wildlife and the individual. There are some ditches in the area, so the person was out of view for a bit as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took approximately 15 seconds for this person to jump over the 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Thomas said it wasn\u2019t the first time someone jumped the airport\u2019s fence, but \u201call of them\u2026in the past were apprehended very, very quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will look to see what improvements we can make,\u201d the chief said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Denver airport is the largest in the nation by area \u2014 spanning 54 square miles.<\/p>\n

Minutes later, the Federal Aviation Administration reported to airport officials that a person had been struck.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles-bound plane was moving at 139 mph at the time of the collision, according to FlightAware.<\/a><\/p>\n

Shocking audio captured the moments bewildered pilots aboard the flight smashed into Mott \u2013 leaving his \u201climbs\u201d scattered on the runway.<\/p>\n

\u201cTower, Frontier 4345, we\u2019re stopping on the runway. Uh, we just hit somebody\u2026 we have an engine fire,\u201d the pilot said, according to air traffic control audio.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI do have limbs on the runway. I believe the aircraft struck an individual,\u201d the airport staff continued, adding later: \u201cThere appear to be human remains on the runway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Passenger John Anthens, who was on the plane with his sons, was looking out the window when he saw \u201cthe legs of a human spinning around in the engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mott jumped the fence and walked to the tarmac before colliding with a Frontier flight. City and County of Denver, Department of Aviation via Storyful<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of people didn\u2019t know what was going on or what happened, but there was just a big explosion and, obviously, when you hear a big explosion, people start screaming, kids are crying and it was horrific,\u201d Anthens told The Post.<\/p>\n

The nose of the plane jerked upward on impact as a \u201cbomb\u201d-like blast rattled the cabin, Anthens said.<\/p>\n

The engine burst into flames moments later as passengers remained in their seats at the flight attendants\u2019 behest.<\/p>\n

All 224 passengers and seven crew members were safely evacuated from the plane.<\/p>\n

Passengers leave the airplane after the flight struck a man who walked onto the runway while the plane was taking off. AP<\/p>\n

Photos showed passengers sliding down an inflatable ramp and wrapped in blankets, standing near the blood-soaked engine.<\/p>\n

The airport said 12 passengers were injured during the commotion, and five were taken to the hospital. The runway was closed for roughly nine hours while an investigation was conducted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The National Transportation Safety Board reportedly said it wouldn\u2019t investigate the incident itself \u2013 instead, it will be handled by local law enforcement \u2013 but the agency will examine the plane\u2019s emergency evacuation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Washington said Tuesday that safety is the airport\u2019s number one priority, an investigation into Mott\u2019s death is ongoing and \u201cwe will do our best to make sure that the improvements that we need to make are made very, very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24\/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to\u00a0SuicidePreventionLifeline.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man who was horrifically mangled by a jet engine after stepping in front of a Frontier Airlines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7672,15618,9,11,10,11649,340,58],"class_list":["post-228866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-denver","tag-frontier-airlines","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-plane-accident","tag-suicide","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}