A 30-year-old Russian national who checked into the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to take a flight to Mumbai late Thursday night allegedly jumped to death from the first floor of the T-2 terminal.
The incident took place around 11.30 p.m. Airport Director George G. Tharakan gave the identity of the deceased as Danill Khondozhko. The Russian citizen, who checked in at 7 p.m. to board Air India flight 668 flight to Mumbai at 8 p.m., reportedly climbed to the top of the VIP room located after the security hold area on the first floor and jumped down, falling near the entry to the Customs enclosure.
The security personnel and medical team of the Airports Authority of India at the T-2 terminal rushed to the spot, examined and shifted him in an ambulance to a private hospital near the main entrance of the airport. The Russian citizen was pronounced dead at 11.51 p.m.
After the security check and other formalities, he was spotted waiting for the flight with the boarding pass and the hand baggage. He was also seen in the enclosure for smokers talking over mobile phone just before the incident. The flight had arrived at 10.54 p.m. and his baggage was loaded.
The Airport Manager, in a complaint to the police, said an electrician, Vijayan, and ASG personnel on duty had informed the staff that a foreigner was seen shouting and attempting to jump from the first floor. Before the Manager and others could intervene, Danill jumped from the first floor.
The Valiyathura police have registered a case. Forensic experts and the dog squad visited the spot that was cordoned off on Friday morning. The hand baggage of the deceased was recovered from the enclosure for smokers.
The Russian consulate was alerted and the body was shifted to to the mortuary of Government Medical College Hospital here for autopsy. Copies of the FIR had also been forwarded to the Consulate.
The consulate authorities found that he was accompanied by his friend to the State capital and had stayed in a lodge in Thampanoor before proceeding to an ashram in Neyyar Dam. Efforts are on by the police to locate his friend’s whereabouts, sources said.
Incidentally, the incident took place on the eve of his birthday. The 30-year-old, who was born in Karelia, a city near St Petersburg, Russia, came to India on January 19 on a tourist visa. He had visited Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and Nepal before reaching Thiruvananthapuram as per the entries in the passport, the police said.
