By By Anne Sewell Aug 1, 2014 in World Palma De Mallorca - René Becker, 61, had been living outside Mallorca's Son Sant Joan airport for seven years. When he passed away Thursday morning, thousands just passed him by without noticing, for at least six hours. Known locally as "El Barbas" or Whiskers, Becker had been living outside the Son Sant Joan airport for seven years, surrounded by his few treasured possessions. Finally on Thursday morning, members of the airport staff noticed that he appeared to be sleeping a bit more deeply than usual. When they went to check up on him, they found he had no pulse and that his body was already cold. According to the coroner, he had been dead for a minimum of six hours. During that time, thousands of passengers had passed his dead body, heading for destinations including London, Barcelona, Madrid, Manchester, Liverpool, Cologne, Nuremberg, Nantes and Belfast, but not one of those passengers noticed anything wrong. Becker was described as a "friendly" and "affable" man with a bushy white beard and was well-known and even a minor celebrity in the area. He was even mentioned in Germany's tabloid press, according to a local German-language newspaper, Mallorca Zeitung. He can been seen His affable nature apparently aroused sympathy everywhere. Some tourists offered him food and others, the more daring, wanted to take a photo with him. No one suspected that he was previously an engineer who had preferred to change his life and settle in Palma's airport. Reportedly Becker left his career and Germany after his divorce from his wife. One article in the Mallorca Zeitung described his brief reunion with his daughter Patricia back in 2011, who apparently flew out to the island to try and convince her father to return home. He was apparently overjoyed to see his daughter again, but turned down her offer, saying he preferred to stay in his new "home." Spanish sources: Diario de Mallorca 1 Diario de Mallorca 2 Ultimo Hora The Local During the summer months, Mallorca's airport is extremely busy and it is thought that thousands of passengers passing by to depart from the airport, failed to notice Becker's dead body. The homeless beggar was finally discovered, lying dead on a bench outside the departure lounge of the airport.Known locally as "El Barbas" or Whiskers, Becker had been living outside the Son Sant Joan airport for seven years, surrounded by his few treasured possessions.Finally on Thursday morning, members of the airport staff noticed that he appeared to be sleeping a bit more deeply than usual. When they went to check up on him, they found he had no pulse and that his body was already cold. According to the coroner, he had been dead for a minimum of six hours.During that time, thousands of passengers had passed his dead body, heading for destinations including London, Barcelona, Madrid, Manchester, Liverpool, Cologne, Nuremberg, Nantes and Belfast, but not one of those passengers noticed anything wrong.Becker was described as a "friendly" and "affable" man with a bushy white beard and was well-known and even a minor celebrity in the area. He was even mentioned in Germany's tabloid press, according to a local German-language newspaper, Mallorca Zeitung. He can been seen here in a photo , joking with a police officer.His affable nature apparently aroused sympathy everywhere. Some tourists offered him food and others, the more daring, wanted to take a photo with him. No one suspected that he was previously an engineer who had preferred to change his life and settle in Palma's airport. Reportedly Becker left his career and Germany after his divorce from his wife.One article in the Mallorca Zeitung described his brief reunion with his daughter Patricia back in 2011, who apparently flew out to the island to try and convince her father to return home. He was apparently overjoyed to see his daughter again, but turned down her offer, saying he preferred to stay in his new "home." More about Mallorca, Spain, Son Sant Joan airport, Majorca, rene becker More news from Mallorca Spain Son Sant Joan airpor... Majorca rene becker german homeless indigent