Denver airport death ruled suicide by medical examiner

A man fatally struck by a Frontier Airlines aircraft at Denver International Airport on Friday died by suicide, the city's medical examiner ruled Tuesday.

Michael Mott, 41, jumped an 8-foot fence with barbed wire onto the runway at approximately 11:19 a.m. Friday, according to Phillip Washington, the airport's chief executive. Roughly two minutes elapsed between Mott's breach of the runway and when he was struck by the Frontier aircraft, which was accelerating for takeoff on a flight to Los Angeles.

Mott died from multiple blunt and sharp force injuries caused by the plane's engine, Dr. Sterling McLaren, the Denver chief medical examiner, said Tuesday at a press conference at the airport. McLaren noted that determining manner of death required evaluating the totality of the investigation, including scene findings, circumstances, and history.

"As a scientific investigation, we can't really know, really, what someone's intent was," McLaren said. "The best way to determine manner is to evaluate the totality of the investigation - scene findings, circumstances and history. Based on all of those findings together, we determined the manner of death to be suicide."

Mott was not an airport employee. He had previous contact with metropolitan-area law enforcement, according to Ron Thomas, the Denver police chief.

One of the plane's engines caught fire during the incident, creating a large debris field. Of the 231 people aboard the aircraft, twelve sustained minor injuries during an evacuation.