Some passengers aboard a Frontier flight who were evacuated when their plane hit a man on the runway plan to take action against the City and County of Denver, arguing negligence. 

Federal investigators are investigating the May 8 runway fatality at Denver International Airport, where 41-year-old Michael Mott allegedly scaled a fence and entered an active runway before being struck by the departing plane — Frontier Flight 4345. 

More passengers will file claims in the future, Joe LoRusso, an aviation attorney with Ramos Law, one of the two law firms representing the passengers, told The Denver Gazette.

LoRusso said that a “notice of claim” is set to be delivered to Denver on Wednesday afternoon, asking, among other things, for the city to waive its protection under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, a law that protects state and local government entities from tort or injury-based lawsuits.

In a copy of the notice of claim obtained by The Denver Gazette, attorneys anticipate damages to “exceed $10 million globally.”

The Denver Gazette has reached out to the Denver City Attorney’s office for comment.

LoRusso argued that the legal action is about “accountability” and that the incident should have never happened.

“The infrastructure that DIA supports is simply immeasurable, and because of that, we have a very sophisticated security network and 36 miles of fencing,” he said. “We got thermal cameras, infrared cameras, motion cameras, patrolling, policing, and we believe that we had a pretty solid infrastructure for safety, and then in this event, we watched it all crumble in two minutes.”

The plane, an Airbus 321 operated by Frontier Airlines, with 224 passengers and seven crewmembers, was heading to Los Angeles International Airport, when it “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,” according to a post on the airport’s official X account.

Passengers were evacuated via slides, and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. An airport spokesperson said 12 passengers received minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals.

During a May 12 press conference at DIA on the incident, Airport Chief Executive Officer Phil Washington told reporters that airport alarms had alerted operations at the airport of movement activity detected near the airport’s eastern perimeter fence. 

“It took approximately 15 seconds for this person to jump over the eight-foot fence topped with barbed wire,” Washington said, adding that the time between the perimeter fence breach and the impact of the plane was approximately two minutes.

Given the short time period, Washington said airport officials were unable to intervene and prevent him from reaching the runway.  

“Mr. Washington said that they (DIA) knew he (Mott) was getting over the fence, and they watched him for two minutes come to a runway,” LoRusso, who is also a pilot, told The Denver Gazette. “Why didn’t we have a ground stop and stop every airplane from taxiing and every airplane from taking off, every airplane from landing, is beyond me.”

The idea, he said, is that everything at the airport comes to a standstill, giving airport operations, law enforcement, and others the opportunity to intervene. 

“That would have been a 20-minute inconvenience for the whole airport,” LoRusso added. “We solve the problem safely, and then from that point we let the airport move forward. It would have been an inconvenience, but it was just the right thing to do at the time. It should have been done, and it wasn’t done, and we left caution to the wind, and this is what happened.”

LoRusso said in this case, all passengers and crew members aboard Flight 4345 are eligible and have 182 days to notify the City of Denver that they have a potential claim.

“This was, in the words of Denver International Airport’s own chief executive officer, a ‘horrible and preventable tragedy,’” Andres Pereira of DJC Law, an Austin-based firm also representing the passengers of Flight 4345. “Reporting since the incident — including from a retired Denver Police officer who described the perimeter as a known vulnerability point — suggests that the risk that materialized on Runway 17L was not unforeseeable.”

A statement from the Ramos Law firm said that both firms expect to amend and supplement the claim as federal investigations progress and additional facts come to light.

“We intend to find out exactly what failed, who knew about the vulnerabilities beforehand, why they were not fixed, and who knew about the breach and failed to order an immediate ground hold of all aircraft,” LoRusso said.

This is a developing story and will be updated