Foreign man falls to death at Suvarnabhumi

A man, aged 32, holding Australian and Icelandic passports, fell to his death from an escalator at the passenger terminal of Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday.

Sirote Duangratana, general manager of the airport, said security guards were informed at 6.25am that a foreign man had fallen from an escalator on the fourth floor of the terminal and landed on the first floor.

Medical staff gave him first aid and he was rushed to Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8.06am.

Mr Sirote identified the man as Alan Paul Grimes.

Surveillance camera footage showed he took an escalator from the third to the fourth floor, close to Gate 5 of the passenger terminal, and then jumped when he reached the top of the escalator, according to Mr Sirote. He landed on the first floor near Gate 4.

Kittpong Kittikachorn, safety director of Suvarnabhumi airport, said that as similar incidents had occurred there before, authorities had already installed 2.5-metre-high glass walls both inside and outside the terminal. The traveller managed to get around the walls and jumped, he said.

He has ordered engineers to consider installing additional safety walls.

Pol Col Monthian Baothong, chief of Suvarnabhumi airport police, said investigators thought the man might have suffered from stress or emotional problems and decided to take his own life.

Since Suvarnabhumi airport opened in 2006, eight people have fallen to their deaths from the upper-floor walkways, prompting the airport to spend 33 million baht in 2013 building glass barriers to stop people falling or taking their lives.