The suicide of a man who walked in front of a Frontier Airlines jet during takeoff at Denver International Airport earlier this year also led to the subsequent death of a passenger from injuries sustained during the plane’s emergency stop, a new lawsuit alleges.
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Dozens of passengers and crew on the flight that aborted after the man jumped the airport’s perimeter fence in May are suing the airport, the city and two related companies for negligence and wrongful death.
Michael Mott, 41, was able to scale the 8-foot fence and head toward the terminal for more than two minutes without detection on May 8 before he walked in front of Flight 4345 as it accelerated for takeoff and was hit by the right engine, igniting a fire. The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide.
In the 56-page lawsuit filed Sept. 17 in Denver District Court, attorneys with Ramos Law and Texas-based Watts Law Firm allege a passenger, Silva Ermelinda De Cervantes, died as a result of the inhalation of smoke, toxic fumes and combustion byproducts,” the lawsuit states.
The Weld County Coroner’s Office confirmed she died on May 16 — eight days after the incident at DIA — in Weld County, but declined to release her cause of death.
The lawsuit names DIA leaders, including CEO Phil Washington; Hazelbrook Behavioral Health, which ran the Aurora home where Mott was placed by the Colorado Department of Human Services; Covenant Aviation Security; and 20 unnamed workers from those companies.
Sixty-eight people — including an air traffic controller, two juveniles and the estate of the passenger whose family said she died from the crash — are seeking unspecified damages for the incident, according to the complaint.
Airport officials previously said 12 people had minor injuries from the crash and five were taken to the hospital.
The attorneys also describe a series of alleged failures by DIA, Covenant Aviation Security and Hazelbrook Behavioral Health that allowed the crash to happen.
If the airport perimeter and property were “monitored, staffed, and operated with reasonable care, (staff) would have detected the intrusion, alerted air traffic control and the aircraft operator, and halted operations on Runway 17L before Flight 4345 ever began its takeoff roll,” attorneys wrote in the complaint.
A worker did detect a ground alarm at the time Mott scaled the fence, but thought it was caused by a nearby herd of deer.
Covenant Aviation Security and Hazelbrook did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. Denver airport officials referred questions to the City Attorney’s Office.
In an email, an unnamed spokesperson with the Denver City Attorney’s Office said the incident was terrible and tragic, but the city does not bear legal responsibility for it.
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The lawsuit includes 17 claims, including negligence, negligent training and hiring, a 14th Amendment violation for state-created danger, negligent infliction of emotional distress and the wrongful death of De Cervantes.
The passengers and crew suffered “serious bodily injury, mental and emotional injury, and other damages,” attorneys wrote in the lawsuit, including “exposure to smoke, fumes, combustion byproducts, and airborne contaminants; injuries sustained during the collision, engine fire, aborted takeoff, and emergency evacuation; and severe emotional distress, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress.”
Several have not been able to fly again because of the incident, according to the complaint.
Denver airport officials knew or should have known the facility’s perimeter was vulnerable because people had previously broken into the property, and this was the sixth breach since 2023, the lawsuit claimed. Two other incidents in that same time frame involved people jumping the fence and entering the airport’s warehouse area.
Mott was suicidal while he was living at a Hazelbrook-run facility in the 3600 block of South Bahama Street in Aurora, and staff there knew he had plans to kill himself and required constant supervision — but he was able to leave the home undetected and travel to DIA, according to the complaint.
State human services officials put Mott in the facility as part of an outpatient restoration order after a judge found he was not competent to proceed in a criminal case.
While Mott was a resident there in 2025, state officials audited the home and found 16 violations related to not keeping records for court-ordered medications, case management or care coordination, attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
Hazelbrook Behavioral Health was also one of the subjects of a 2024 Colorado Public Radio investigation about Denver taxpayer-funded mental health grants awarded to organizations without licensing or experience in the field.
The city’s Caring for Denver Foundation continued to give grant funding to Hazelbrook, including $1.3 million in 2026 for a “transitional safety zone program,” which is a criminal justice diversion program, according to the foundation’s online records.
Attorneys representing the passengers also plan to sue the state of Colorado — including the Department of Human Services, Behavioral Health Administration and Department of Health Care Policy & Financing — but must wait for 90 days after submitting a notice of the lawsuit in early August, the complaint states.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office has no comment on the notice, spokesperson Lawrence Pacheco said.
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