Andrew Paul Westlake, 30, had been escorted off a plane for “security reasons” minutes before he was understood to have leapt over a ledge at Dalaman airport, The Sun reported.

Earlier local media reports suggested he died after falling from a plane on the tarmac.

According to Turkish media Mr Westlake had been wandering the terminal for three days looking for a ticket back to Britain after missing his flight.

After boarding a flight at around 3am, Mr Westlake was said to have argued with cabin crew and been taken off the plane, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported.

Earlier the pilot had ordered the dad, from County Durham in North East England, off the flight for being unruly and cops were called.

Mr Westlake’s aunt Pauline Butler spoke of his mother’s devastation following the death of the father-of-one on his first family holiday with his partner and daughter.

Previous reports claimed Mr Westlake had fallen from a jetty linking the plane to the terminal, but traumatised witnesses have claimed he fell to his death after climbing over the balcony inside the airport.

Bobby Youngson, who was in the airport at the time, told The Sun Online: “I was standing at the baggage drop to check in bags and I heard a woman scream and say ‘he’s jumped, he’s jumped’.

“I ran over to the glass handrail — which came up chest height — and I looked over the handrail, and he was on the ground.

“I said what’s happened, she said ‘he just jumped, he’s just climbed up and leapt.’

“Myself and another man went downstairs in the lift, we told him stay still don’t move,” he said.

Another witness told the Mirror it appeared he previously tried to run into the glass balcony barrier.

“My partner said, ‘Are you OK?’ and tried to give him a hand, but he didn’t speak,” the witness said.

“My partner watched him stand back up and he backed away from the barrier and then just ran for it and hopped over straight down onto the floor below.

“The image that my partner still has in his head is the man looking so desperate.”

Another woman said a Thomas Cook Airlines worker was among the people to help Mr Westlake as he lay on the floor.

“When we spoke to the airline representative who went down there, she said that he was saying to her that he just wanted it to end … She didn’t know what he meant by it,” she added.

One of the last people to speak to the 30-year-old before his death — who said he spoke to him in the queue — said he told him he had been kicked off a previous flight for putting sun cream on blisters he had on his feet.

“He said there were signs up saying people should not wash their feet and when they questioned him about it, they said it was an insult to their culture,” Perry Sheldon told

ChronicleLive.

“He said all he wanted to do was get home.

“He seemed a bit nervous but he wasn’t in any way aggressive, he didn’t seem like a threat to anyone.

“He seemed like a lovely lad.”

If you or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.