Man hospitalized after entering DIA airfield, the second breach this year

A 23-year-old man was arrested Saturday on the airfield at Denver International Airport, marking the second known time this year that someone gained access to the secured area around the runways.

Denver police received a report of the intrusion at about 2:20 p.m. on Saturday. Airport staff had “spotted someone inside the secured fence line who was walking towards (the) … concourse on foot,” according to a report filed by Officer Emmett Hurd.

Airport operations personnel stopped the man before police officers arrived. The officers identified him as Kibrom Melake Tesfamichael and confirmed he did not have any outstanding warrants.

Police records redacted what the man said to officers, but he was taken to a local hospital for medical attention. At the request of airport staff, he was cited for trespassing, according to police.

“We are still investigating this incident, and we want to thank our crews and DPD for taking swift action,” an airport spokesperson wrote in an email.

The man was detained on the north side of the airfield, but the police report did not indicate that he walked on a runway. The airport spokesperson did not say whether he reached the runway.

A previous trespassing incident was deadly

Earlier this year, a man named Michael Mott died in an apparent suicide after entering the secured area and walking in front of a departing Frontier Airlines flight. Twelve people were injured.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide or other acts of self-harm, please visit 988Colorado.com or call or text 988 from your phone.

Mott had scaled a fence and was struck on runway 17L, which is on the airport’s east side.

A lawsuit alleges the subsequent fire and toxic fumes resulted in the death of a woman named Silva Ermelinda de Cervantes soon after the incident.

What security does the airport have?

The airport has some 36 miles of perimeter fencing — a large area to patrol and maintain. Mott’s death sparked fears of copycats and raised a debate about whether airports could, or should, fortify their perimeters.

“People ought to be concerned. This was really an unprecedented risk. But now there is precedent,” said Eric Chaffee, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and an expert on risk, including in the aviation industry, in an earlier interview with the Associated Press.

Other experts cautioned that security fences are mostly meant to keep out wildlife, saying that it would be impossible to keep determined people out.

Jim Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told the AP that Denver should consider adding more personnel and cameras to monitor its fence line.