Colo.: Officials identify man killed by Frontier plane at Denver airport
OAN Staff Jenna Lee
2:27 PM – Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Officials have identified the man who was fatally struck by a Frontier Airlines plane at Denver International Airport (DEN) as 41-year-old Michael Mott.
Denver officials provided an update on their findings regarding the weekend incident on Tuesday, noting that fingerprints were used to confirm Mott’s identity.
The Denver Medical Examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide and named “multiple blunt and sharp force injuries” as the cause of death. However, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas also confirmed that no suicide note was recovered.
During the news conference, Chief Medical Examiner Sterling McLaren clarified the harrowing circumstances of the fatality, stating that Mott was killed after being ingested into one of the aircraft’s jet engines.
According to investigators, Mott bypassed the airport’s perimeter fencing and entered the active runway just as a Los Angeles-bound aircraft reached a takeoff speed of 139 mph. The ensuing collision at approximately 11:19 p.m. ignited an engine fire, forcing the emergency evacuation of all 224 passengers and seven crew members on board.
This fatal encounter concluded a lengthy history of criminal activity for Mott, whose legal troubles began at age 17 and spanned more than 20 arrests. His extensive record included a 2005 conviction for second-degree homicide with a firearm, followed by charges of felony menacing and assault in 2010, second-degree burglary in 2016, and felony assault on a peace officer in 2020.
Even in the months leading up to the airfield incident, Mott remained on the radar of law enforcement, having been involved in an assault in February 2025 where the victim ultimately declined to press charges.
A spokesperson for the Denver Police Department told the New York Post, “We currently are looking for any notes, computers, anything like that, trying to identify places where he most recently was.”
Security expert Jeff Price highlighted that perimeter breaches remain a persistent and frequent challenge for aviation security, occurring perhaps dozens of times each year across the country.
While these incidents are a regular occurrence, Price noted that most trespassers are motivated by intoxication or a reckless desire to test security boundaries rather than a specific malicious intent. However, in rarer and more eccentric cases, individuals have scaled airport fences in an attempt to uncover evidence for a long-standing conspiracy theory claiming the facility conceals a subterranean UFO base.
“It’s really not that difficult to jump an airport perimeter fence. They meet the standards for TSA [Transportation Security Administration], but the standards are not that robust,” added Price.
Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington emphasized that safety remains the facility’s paramount priority in the wake of the incident.
While noting that the investigation into Mott’s death is still active, Washington committed to a swift response regarding airport security protocols. He assured the public that the airport is dedicated to identifying necessary infrastructure or procedural enhancements and implementing those improvements with urgency to prevent future breaches.
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