Jessica Hyba, an Ottawa woman who was among the 18 Canadian victims in the deadly Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, is being remembered as an “outstanding and dedicated humanitarian” and a “loving mother” by the international relief agency where she used to work.
Hyba, 43, worked as a program officer for CARE at the humanitarian agency’s offices in Ottawa from 2001 to 2005, CARE Canada’s CEO and president Gillian Barth told Global News. She then worked for CARE in Indonesia until 2008, as part of the Indian Ocean tsunami response effort.
Hyba, who most recently worked overseas for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, was “a spark right from the beginning” and “embraced her work wholeheartedly,” Barth said.
“You could tell from the beginning that she had chosen for her path in life to work in the humanitarian field,” Barth said in a phone interview on Monday. “She was a delight to work with. Everyone loved her dearly.
“She was just an outstanding and dedicated humanitarian.”
The UNHCR identified Hyba as one of its Canadian-born employees who was on board the plane when it crashed shortly after departing Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
Hyba had been working as a senior external relations officer in Mogadishu, Somalia since February, according to a statement issued by the UNHCR. She also previously worked for UNICEF, the statement said.
Hyba leaves behind two daughters, aged 9 and 12, the UNHCR said. Learning of Hyba’s passing this weekend was “incredibly difficult,” especially because she had young children, Barth said.
“Jess was in some of the most hostile environments. She worked in Iraq, she worked in so many tough places and to lose her due to a plane crash, given all of the environments she’s worked in, seems particularly unfair,” Barth said.
Hyba first joined the UNHCR in Iraq in 2013, and had worked at the high commission’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland as well, the UNHCR said.
She grew up in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven, according to Barth.
The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday morning, killing all 157 aboard.
A mother and daughter from Edmonton, a renowned Carleton University professor, a forestry worker from New Brunswick and an accountant with the City of Calgary were also among the Canadians who died in the crash.
It was not clear what caused the Ethiopian Airlines plane to go down in clear weather six minutes after departing Bole Airport on its way to Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya. The accident was strikingly similar to last year’s crash of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea, killing 189 people.
Both crashes involved the Boeing 737 Max 8, and both happened minutes after the jets became airborne. In the wake of Sunday’s crash, Ethiopian Airlines as well as all Chinese airlines have ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes indefinitely.
– With files from The Canadian Press