A man trespassed Saturday on the airfield at Denver International Airport, just five months after a 41-year-old man was struck by a plane and killed after he scaled the airport’s perimeter fence and walked onto a runway.
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People in the airport’s tower spotted the man on the north side of the airfield around 2:30 p.m., spokeswoman Ashley Forest said. Denver police responded and officers cited the 23-year-old man for trespassing before taking him to a hospital because he was in need of medical treatment, police spokesman Jay Casillas said.
The airport’s airfield includes runways, taxiways, hangars and other buildings. It was not immediately clear where in the airfield the 23-year-old man traveled.
Forest could not answer questions about whether the man reached any runways or hangars, whether his actions disrupted takeoffs or landings, how the man made it into the airport’s airfield or why he needed medical treatment. She noted the incident remains under investigation.
Police records detailing the allegations against the man were not immediately available Monday.
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He has a limited criminal history in Colorado, court records show. In 2023, the man was cited for possessing a controlled substance and obstructing a police officer in Arapahoe County and assaulting a police officer with bodily fluids in Denver; all three charges were later dismissed. The man also faced a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge in 2025; that Adams County case is pending.
The airport’s security measures have drawn scrutiny in the wake of the May 8 incident in which 41-year-old Michael Mott scaled the airport’s 8-foot perimeter fence and walked in front of a Frontier Airlines jet during takeoff. The impact started an engine fire and forced the plane’s 231 passengers and crew to evacuate using the plane’s slides. Mott’s death was ruled a suicide.
His intrusion into the airport was picked up by an automated alarm system, but a person who reviewed the motion alert saw a herd of deer outside the fence and mistakenly believed the deer caused the alert, Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington said after the crash. Mott spent more than two minutes walking to the runway, attorneys alleged in a newly filed lawsuit, which claimed one passenger on the plane died days after the crash after inhaling smoke and fumes during the evacuation.
Trespassers in the airport’s airfield are infrequent but not unheard of. Mott was one of six people to breach the airport’s perimeter fence since 2023. Another two people jumped a boundary fence into the airport’s warehouse area in that timeframe, according to Denver police.
