Athlete, soccer fans, vacationing family among Malaysia Airlines crash victims
NEW YORK. KAZINFORM A nun, a leading AIDS researcher, an international athlete and a family traveling on summer vacation.
The victims aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 came from around the world and held a wide range of hopes and dreams, CNN reports. Their stories are being shared online, in traditional media and among friends and loved ones of passengers aboard the Boeing 777, which was shot down by unknown attackers Thursday in a rebel-controlled part of eastern Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines on Saturday issued its latest list of the 298 people aboard doomed Flight MH17, which was shot down in eastern Ukraine. There were 193 Dutch citizens -- the most of any nation -- on the flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The other people came from around the world.
Forty-three were from Malaysia, including 15 crew and two infants; 27 were from Australia; 12 were from Indonesia; 10 were from the United Kingdom, including one dual UK/South African citizen; four were from Germany; four were from Belgium, three were from the Philippines; and one was from Canada.
Included in the Dutch toll was the lone American, who had dual Dutch-U.S. citizenship.
Malaysia Airlines listed one passenger as being from New Zealand, but the airline's count did not mention one Hong Kong passenger included in earlier tallies.
Sanjid Singh Sandu
This Malaysia Airlines flight attendant swapped flights at the last moment on Thursday and boarded MH17 in Amsterdam so he could get home early, his parents told CNN.
Four months earlier his wife, Beegeok Tan, also a flight attendant with the airline, switched flights in Kuala Lumpur and escaped going down with MH370. That flight disappeared in one of aviation's great mysteries.
"Fate has played a very unfair hand against us," his father said.
Sandu also leaves behind a 10-year-old son, who says he now has to be the man of the house.
His wife left a message on Facebook: "We know you are gone and won't be coming back. I wish you a safe journey and I know you will go to a much better place."
Pim de Kuijer
Dutch passenger Pim de Kuijer was on his way to an International AIDS Conference in Australia -- a trip that was to be followed by a backpacking excursion there, according to his Facebook page.
It was one of many overseas trips the 32-year-old had taken in his life. In addition to his work as an AIDS campaigner, de Kuijer had also worked as an elections observer in Egypt and posted pictures to his Facebook in May of elections there. He had also previously covered elections in Ukraine, according to Channel 4 News.
The day of the crash, de Kuijer posted to his Facebook page a picture of him posing beneath aviator sunglasses and sporting a large travelers' backpack. Well-wishers' comments turned from excitement, to panic, to devastation as the Facebook community learned of the downed MH17 and the passengers aboard.
"I still can't get my head around the fact that he was killed," wrote one friend. "Pim believed in understanding between countries, the rule of law and equality for all and fought for his values through his work and his political activities. Let's try to live up his legacy and work even harder towards a peaceful world."
Quinn Lucas Schansman
Quinn Lucas Schansman was aboard the ill-fated flight, U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday.
Schansman, 19, was a dual U.S.-Netherlands citizen. He was born in New York while his father was working at the Dutch Embassy, his grandfather Ronald Schansman told CNN affiliate KYW.
An avid rugby player, he was a student at the International Business School - Hogeschool van Amsterdam and was headed to Indonesia to vacation with his family.
"Big boy, very lively, and we all will miss him," his grandfather said. "As a grandparent, you just hope that none of your children or the grandchildren will go before you, and now it has happened."
He last saw his grandson when he turned 18 last year.
Karlijn Keijzer
Another passenger, Karlijn Keijzer, 25, was a champion rower from Amsterdam who had showed passion and leadership in the United States as a member of the team at Indiana University in Bloomington. The blond Dutch chemistry student with an infectious smile left behind a team of friends, many of whom will remember her for a lifetime.
"She was so intelligent and such a hard worker. But rowing was her passion," said teammate Kelly Bainbridge. Keijzer rowed on the team's fastest boat crew, where she showed leadership and a technique that Bainbridge described as "pristine."
Her accomplishments included racing in the European Rowing Junior Championships in 2006 and the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2007.
She was driven and a hard worker, but she never lost sight of who she was, friends said. In the gym during weight training, "if someone was having a tough day, she would give them a pat on the back," said Bainbridge. She also had a refreshing sense of humor. With a tip of the hat to Indiana's farmland culture, Keijzer showed up at a team party dressed as an ear of corn.
"I feel like so much of the media coverage focuses on nationalities," Bainbridge said. This tragedy, she said, transcends that. "For us, it wasn't about where you're from. We were like family."
Andrei Anghel
The father of Canadian medical student Andrei Anghel, 24, told The Canadian Press that his son boarded Flight 17 on his way to vacation in Bali, CTV reported. Durham Regional police delivered the sad news to the father, according to the report. Anghel, from Ajax, Ontario, was enrolled at University of Waterloo before relocating to Romania for medical school, CTV reported.
The Gunawan family
Three additional victims of Flight 17 were a family traveling home to the Philippines. Irene Gunawan, 54, and her children -- Sheryl Shania Gunawan, 15, and Darryl Dwight Gunawan, 20 -- were on a summer vacation. The youngest was a high school student, family friend Peter Overbeeke told ABS CBN News .
"They were a very sweet family," he said, describing them as "harmonious," "peaceful" and "successful."
Darryl Dwight Gunawan was an up-and-coming DJ, according to a close friend. Johny Waliam said his friend wanted to be more than a DJ; he wanted to give back.
"He said he wanted to help people, so he was going to study to be a doctor to help other people," Waliam said. Sister Philomene Tiernan
A 77-year-old teacher and Roman Catholic nun, Sister Philomene Tiernan also was on the flight, according to Australia's Kincoppal-Rose Bay School of the Sacred Heart. The school principal described Tiernan as "wonderfully wise and compassionate."
John Alder and Liam Sweeney
In the UK, the Newcastle United soccer team announced that two of its "most loyal supporters," John Alder and Liam Sweeney, had died aboard the plane. The two were lifelong supporters and followers of Newcastle. Sweeney volunteered as a steward on fan buses to away games, and the two were familiar to thousands of fans and staff, the club told Sky Sports. They were en route to New Zealand to join the team for a tour.
Joep Lange and Jacqueline van Tongeren
Other victims include a revered AIDS researcher en route to the International AIDS Conference scheduled to begin this weekend in Melbourne, Australia.
Prominent Dutch scientist Joep Lange was a pioneer in HIV research and a former president of the International AIDS Society, which organizes the conference.
"He was a real hard-core scientist, but on the other hand, he really had the heart of an activist. He was quite bold and a little bit of a troublemaker," said Albert Wu, professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Wu had helped Lange plan the 1991 AIDS conference.
Lange "was one of the first people to advocate spreading HIV medications to Africa," Wu said. At the time, the medication wasn't being delivered because of refrigeration problems.
"He said, 'If Coca-Cola can deliver cold beverages to Africa, why can't we deliver HIV medication?' And he helped make it happen," Wu recalled.
In a statement, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, said Lange's death was "a profound loss to the HIV/AIDS and global health community."
"Joep Lange was a towering presence in the fight against AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic and a wonderful friend, colleague, and teacher," amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost said. "He inspired legions of AIDS researchers, health care workers and activists and was an inspiration to me personally. He will be sorely missed."
Lange's partner, Jacqueline van Tongeren, was also on the flight, says the Health[e]Foundation, co-founded by Lange.
Martine de Schutter
She was, like many passengers, on her way to the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne.
De Schutter was program manager for Bridging the Gaps, an international HIV program on health and rights for LGBT people, sex workers and people who use drugs. Bridging the Gaps is based in Amsterdam.
Before taking that job early this year, she'd spent a decade as executive coordinator of AIDS Action Europe , a partnership on HIV and AIDS in Europe and Central Asia. Read more here