The man who was horrifically mangled by a jet engine after stepping in front of a Frontier Airlines plane at Denver International Airport on Friday died by suicide, authorities revealed Tuesday.
Michael Mott, 41, was seeking to end his life when he calmly walked across the runway while the aircraft barreled toward him, according to video of the grisly scene and a representative for the Denver City and County Medical Examiner’s Office.
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.
Horrifying security video of the runway showed Mott get sucked into one of the engines of the Airbus A-321neo mid-takeoff.
He had jumped the perimeter fence and was on the tarmac before colliding with the plane at 11:19 p.m., the airport confirmed.
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 “reviewed the alarm and identified a herd of deer just outside of the perimeter fence.”
“They did not initially see the trespasser,” Washington said. “The 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.”
“It took approximately 15 seconds for this person to jump over the eight foot fence topped with barbed wire,” he added.
Minutes later, the Federal Aviation Administration reported to airport officials that a person had been struck.
