Airlines
Iranian Refugee Dies after Spent 18 Years in Paris Airport
Real-life terminal movie hero who spent 18 years in the airport passes away.
Iranian man, whose 18-year residence at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris served as the basis for a portion of the Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal,” passed away on Saturday, according to authorities.
According to a representative of the Paris airport authorities, Mehran Karimi Nasseri passed away after having a heart attack in Terminal 2F of the airport at about noon. The official claimed that despite treatment by police and medical personnel, the man could not be saved. Public naming of the official was not permitted.
From 1988 through 2006, Nasseri resided in Terminal 1 of the airport, initially out of compliance with the law due to a lack of residency documents and then ostensibly of his own volition.
Every year, he spent the night on a red plastic bench, making friends with airport personnel, showering at the staff restrooms, writing in his notebook, reading magazines, and keeping an eye on the passing travelers.
The staff gave him the nickname “Lord Alfred,” and he rapidly became well-known among travelers.
He told The Associated Press in 1999 while smoking a pipe and relaxing on a bench, “I will eventually leave the airport. With my long, thin hair, sunk-in eyes, and hollow cheeks, I seem feeble. I haven’t gotten a passport or a transit visa yet, though.
His friends in the airport claimed that the years he spent living in the roomless area had been detrimental to his mental health. In the 1990s, the airport doctor voiced concern for his physical and emotional health and referred to him as “fossilized here.” He was likened by a fellow ticket salesperson to a prisoner who couldn’t “live on the outside.”
In the weeks before his passing, the airport employee stated that Nasseri had returned to residing at Charles de Gaulle.
Nasseri’s odd tale served as an inspiration for other works, including the opera “Flight,” the French film “Lost in Transit,” the 2004 Tom Hanks film “The Terminal,” and others.
Hanks portrays Viktor Navorski, a man who, upon arriving at JFK airport in New York from the imaginary Eastern European nation of Krakozhia, finds that all of his travel documents have been rendered invalid by an overnight political revolution. Viktor is thrown into the international lounge of the airport and instructed to remain there until his status is resolved, a process that takes time as the disturbance in Krakozhia persists.
