A radar system monitoring Denver International Airport’s eastern fenceline triggered an alarm minutes before a man scaled the 8-foot fence, ran onto a runway and was hit and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane about to take off, authorities said Tuesday.
The operator responding to the alarm late Friday night initially only saw a herd of deer outside the fence, not the trespasser, identified as Michael Mott, 41, possibly because of some ditches nearby, airport CEO Philip A. Washington said. But two minutes after Mott quickly climbed the fence, about 2 miles from the airport’s terminal, he was hit by the plane.
Mott’s death was determined to be a suicide.
The pilots of the Frontier flight aborted the takeoff after the impact, which caused an engine fire on the plane, which was carrying 231 people. Twelve people reported minor injuries. Five of them were taken to a hospital for treatment, and only one remained at a hospital Tuesday morning, Washington said.
Other people have gotten over the fences at the airport before but were all apprehended “very, very quickly,” Washington said. He could not immediately say how many people have previously scaled the 36 miles of fencing at Denver’s sprawling airport, which he said is the second-largest in the world by size.
The barbed-wire topped fence that Mott scaled in about 15 seconds was not damaged, Washington said. It wasn’t known how he got to the location where he climbed over the fence. There was no indication of any vehicle, bike or automobile nearby.
“I don’t want to speculate on how this individual got there, but we will dig into that as well,” Washington said.
The airport depends on layers of security to keep people out of the 53-square-mile property, including technology like a ground-based radar system that monitors its fenceline and cameras that capture video and thermal imaging, and security patrols, Washington said. He said the airport would look at what improvements could be made because of the incident.
“The layered approach has worked for us,” he said.
The radar system triggered an alarm at the fence at 11:10 p.m. Friday, Washington said. An operator, using video surveillance, then saw a herd of deer just outside the fence but didn’t initially see Mott. The camera alternated between showing the deer and a person, he said. Mott scaled the fence at 11:13 p.m., he said. Two minutes later, the airport was notified by the Federal Aviation Administration that someone had been hit by a plane, he said.
“Given the short time period we were not able to intervene and prevent this person from reaching the runway,” Washington said.
Passenger Nikil Thalanki told local media outlets that he felt “this jerk” as the plane was about to take off, adding that it felt like the wheels had left the ground but then came back down.
Some people on board expressed concern about the evacuation, including being stuck in the plane for several minutes as smoke filled the cabin. Video also showed some passengers coming down the slide apparently with their carry-on bags.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday said it is gathering information about whether it should investigate the evacuation.
Washington praised the actions of the Frontier pilot and crew, calling them “exceptional.”
“This could have been far worse and so we are indebted to their professionalism,” he said.
This is a developing story that will be updated. The Associated Press contributed to this report.