Iranian national Mehran Karimi Nasseri suffered a heart attack in Terminal 2F on Saturday, according to a Paris airport authority official. Emergency services were called to help Mr. Karimi Nasseri, but were unable to save him. He lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 to 2006, initially in a legal vacuum because he had no residency papers. Image: Mehran Karimi Nasseri’s story inspired the 2004 film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones. Photo: AP But he later remained at the airport by choice, according to French media reports. An official said he had been living at the airport again in recent weeks. His story inspired the 2004 film starring Tom Hanks, who plays Viktor Navorsky, a man trapped at New York’s JFK airport after being denied entry to the US – but unable to return to his fictional homeland state of Kraków in Eastern Europe, due to a military coup. Mr. Karimi Nasseri, also known as “Sir Alfred” of Charles de Gaulle Airport, revealed his experience in a book called The Terminal Man, published the same year as the film. He was born in 1945 in Suleiman, a part of Iran formerly under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974, but was imprisoned on his return for political activism before being deported. Image: Mehran Karimi Nasseri photographed at Charles de Gaulle Airport in August 2004. Photo: AP Karimi Nasseri found himself stranded in the international no-man’s land without proper documentation after claiming to have been stolen en route to Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1988. He boarded a plane to London but was sent back to Paris – where he was arrested when he tried to leave the airport. According to his book biography, Karimi Nasseri was imprisoned for six months before returning to Charles de Gaulle airport, where he was denied entry to any other nation, giving him no choice but to stay. He slept on a red plastic bench surrounded by newspapers and magazines stored in cargo boxes and showered in the staff facilities. Image: Mr. Karimi Nasseri was seen sleeping at the airport. Photo: AP “Petrified” at the airport after an ordeal He told The Associated Press in 1999: “Eventually I will leave the airport. But I’m still waiting for a passport or a transit visa.” But Mr Karimi Naseri revealed his surprise when he was finally granted refugee documents, describing his fears of leaving the airport. He reportedly refused to sign them and stayed at Charles de Gaulle for several years before being hospitalized in 2006. Years of living in a windowless space took a toll on his physical and mental health, an airport doctor said, describing him as “petrified here”. A friend of the ticket agent compared him to a prisoner unable to “live outside”. As well as inspiring the Hollywood film, his story was used as the basis for the French screenplay Lost In Transit and an opera called Flight. It was also featured in many newspaper and magazine articles.
