A Romanian citizen was found dead in the toilet of an airplane flying from Bogota in Colombia to San Jose in Costa Rica, representatives of the Colombian airline Avianca announced on Thursday morning, February 26.

The man’s name is Costel Comana, and he was 53, according to Costa Rican press. According to Mediafax newswire, Costel Comana is one of the shareholders of Regiotrans, a private railway carrier. Comana has been under investigation in a corruption case in which the prosecutors had already arrested his business partner, Iorgu Ganea, Mediafax wrote.

Romania’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that the man who was found dead in the plane in Costa Rica was Romanian. “According to the preliminary information we got, the Romanian citizen allegedly committed suicide by strangulation,” the ministry said. The officials didn’t release the man’s name.

The man was apparently accompanied by a Romanian woman. The woman had EUR 11,000 on her, which the Costa Rican police confiscated, according to police sources quoted by Digi 24.

Costel Comana was one of Romania’s richest people, according to wealth rankings made by Forbes and Capital.

Regiotrans is one of the largest private railway carriers in Romania. The company had a EUR 50 million turnover and more than 900 employees, in 2013.]

editor@romania-insider.com