Manama: Stunned Gulf Air crew on Wednesday found an overseas Filipino worker strangled by his own jacket inside the toilet of the plane on a flight from Bahrain via Abu Dhabi to Manila.
Police are investigating to see if the death of Marlon Cueva, 36, is a suicide, but authorities have not ruled out foul play, Manila Bulletin reported.
According to the report, Octavio Lina General Manager of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 said that initial reports showed that the victim hanged himself.
“The injuries seem self-inflicted. He probably used a clothing article to hang himself. There were no ropes or wires. We will leave it to our forensics experts to establish the suicide. The lavatory was intact,” Pasay City police chief Senior Supt. Napoleon Cuaton, said, quoted by Manila Bulletin.
Airlines sources said Flight 154 was preparing to land in Manila when flight attendants noticed Cueva was not on his seat. However, they found the lavatory occupied, and when the occupant did not respond they decided to force the door open, according to reports.
Cueva, from Lubang Island, Mindoro Occidental, was an electrician who left the Philippines to work in the UAE last month.
One passenger reportedly told investigators that Cueva was asking other passengers to “forgive me for all my sins”.
Last September, cleaners sweeping through a Gulf Air plane at Ninoy Aquino Airport found a new born baby in the lavatory of the same flight - Gulf Air 154 - after his mother, an OFW, abandoned him.
The mother, a domestic helper, said that she had been raped by her employer in Qatar. She said that she dumped the baby because she was not sure of her family's reaction to news of her pregnancy.
