WATCH: The 298 victims of the Malaysia Airlines disaster include 80 children, dozens of renowned AIDS researchers and a promising young medical student from Ontario. Jennifer Tryon has their stories.
TORONTO – AIDS researchers, soccer fans, a nun and a Canadian medical student were among of the passengers aboard doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
The Boeing 777 was carrying 298 people when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, sending shockwaves that rippled around the world.
All those aboard died.
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As emergency workers continue to sift through the wreckage of the downed jetliner, there is now a clearer picture of who the victims were.
At least 189 were from the Netherlands.
The nationalities of other passengers included 44 Malaysians – including 15 crew and two infants; 27 Australians; 12 Indonesians, including one infant; 9 Britons; four Germans; four Belgians; three Filipinos and one person each from Canada, New Zealand, the United States and Hong Kong, according to the airlines and those governments. Vietnam’s U.N. ambassador said three unidentified victims were Vietnamese. (Dual citizenship may account for a total greater than 298).
The Canadian on board has been identified as Andrei Anghel, a 24-year-old native from Ajax, Ont. Sonrin Anghel – who received the news from police late Thursday – said his son was attending medical school in Romania and was travelling to Bali on vacation.
According to his personal website, Andrei Anghel was a graduate of the University of Waterloo, where he earned an honours degree in biomedical science.
WATCH: Canadian on board flight downed over Ukraine has been identified
A large contingent of researchers and scientists was on board the flight heading to an AIDS conference in Australia.
The Academic Medical Center hospital in Amsterdam said in a statement that two of its staff – renowned AIDS researcher Joep Lange and his colleague Jacqueline van Tongeren – were believed to have perished.
World Health Organization spokesperson Glenn Thomas, a 49-year-old Briton, was along among the dead.
In a statement the WHO said Thomas “will be remembered for his ready laugh and his passion for public health.”
Australian woman Kaylene Mann suffered the almost unimaginable: She lost her brother Rod Burrows and sister-in-law Mary Burrows when Flight 370 vanished in March; and, on Friday, Mann found out her stepdaughter, Maree Rizk, was killed on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
“It’s just brought everyone, everything back,” her brother Greg Burrows told the Associated Press. “It’s just … ripped our guts again.”
AUDIO: ‘We have just shot down a plane’
Students at a Catholic school in Sydney, Australia, gathered to remember 77-year-old teacher Sister Philomene Tiernan.
Melbourne teacher Frankie Davison and her husband Liam were also on the flight.
“Our hearts and sympathy goes out to their children Milly and Sam, and family,” Toorak College wrote. “We are devastated by the news of this tragedy.”
READ MORE: ‘An outrage’ say world leaders as they react to Malaysian Airlines MH17
The English Premier League was also affected: Soccer club Newcastle United announced two of its supporters – John Alder and Liam Sweeney – who were flying to watch the team’s tour of New Zealand were among those who perished.
World leaders have condemned the attack and are calling for a full investigation.
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*With files from the Associated Press
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