A top Russian aviation expert and scientist was found to have died this week under suspicious circumstances, his employer said, prompting the authorities to form a commission to investigate his death.

In the latest incident involving a high-profile Russian figure since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Anatoly N. Gerashchenko, the former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute, “died in an accident” on Wednesday, the institute said in a statement. He was 72.

Gerashchenko had worked for 45 years at the institute, the country’s most prestigious aviation engineering university, which spearheaded Russia’s achievements in aerospace technology and the development of cutting-edge jets and whose graduates often work in the Russian military-industrial complex.

The university did not give any additional details about the cause of death. Moskovsky Komsomolets, a popular Russian tabloid, reported that Gerashchenko had been overseeing the construction of the university’s new building.

While visiting the construction site on Wednesday, he fell off a staircase that did not yet have railings installed, the newspaper reported, adding that he had been almost blind in one eye for some time.