Lawsuit says Denver airport passenger died after May runway suicide collision

Silva Ermelinda De Cervantes, a passenger on the Frontier Airlines flight that struck a man on a Denver International Airport runway in May, died eight days later from a stroke after breathing smoke and toxic fumes during the emergency evacuation, according to a lawsuit filed in Denver District Court.

The Sept. 17 suit names more than 70 plaintiffs, including passengers, flight crew members and one air traffic controller. Cervantes’ daughter is among them. The defendants include the airport, its security contractor, the City of Denver, mental health facilities responsible for the man’s care and individual employees.

The collision happened when Michael Mott, 41, walked onto a runway and into the path of a departing Frontier Airlines plane, according to the lawsuit and city surveillance footage. One of the plane’s engines caught fire during the collision, and the takeoff was aborted. Passengers evacuated down emergency slides onto the runway.

Airport officials said at the time that 12 people sustained minor injuries. The lawsuit says those figures did not account for the harm caused by smoke and combustion byproducts inside the aircraft during the evacuation.

Cervantes, a grandmother from Weld County, was one of 224 passengers aboard the flight. She suffered a stroke eight days after the incident and died on May 16, the lawsuit says. It attributes her death to “inhalation of smoke, toxic fumes and airborne combustion byproducts.”

The Weld County Coroner’s Office confirmed Cervantes’ date of death but did not perform an autopsy. The state Vital Records Office declined to disclose her cause of death, citing closed-record laws.

The plaintiffs allege negligence, constitutional rights violations, infliction of emotional distress and wrongful death. They argue that Mott’s presence on the airfield was “the foreseeable and preventable result of the failure of the persons and entities” responsible for his care and airport security.

“Plaintiffs seek to be made whole, to the extent the law allows, for the physical, psychological, and economic harm they have suffered and will continue to suffer as a result of a preventable catastrophe,” the lawsuit reads.

The 56-page complaint also focuses on Mott’s mental health history. It says Mott, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, had a long record of suicidal thoughts and attempts. At the time of the collision, he was subject to a court-ordered outpatient placement requiring “constant supervision, monitoring, and medication management,” according to the lawsuit.

Mott was living at a Mental Health Transitional Living Home in Aurora operated by Geno Shvedov, the complaint says. The suit contends that failures by his caretakers were among the causes of the collision.

The case now moves through Denver District Court, where the plaintiffs are seeking compensation for medical harm, emotional distress and economic losses tied to the runway collision and evacuation.