For one family mourning the loss of two relatives in the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash, the tragedy is an all-too-familiar nightmare.
Australian Kaylene Mann lost her brother and sister-in-law, Rod and Mary Burrows, when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared in March. And now she’s dealing with a double tragedy: the loss of stepdaughter Maree Rizk and Rizk’s husband, Albert, who were on board the 747-200 aircraft that was shot down while flying over eastern Ukraine on Thursday.
“It’s just brought everyone, everything back,” Mann’s brother, Greg Burrows, told the Associated Press. “It’s just ripped our guts again.”
Passengers from around the world perished in the flight. The Netherlands suffered the most casualties in the crash, as 189 passengers called the small European country home, according to the latest tallies from Malaysia Airlines.
There were also 44 passengers from Malaysia, 27 from Australia, 12 from Indonesia, nine from the UK, four from Belgium, four from Germany, three from the Philippines, one from Canada and one from New Zealand, the BBC reports.
At least one American citizen was killed during the crash, President Obama said in a statement on Friday. He was identified as Quinn Lucas Schansman, a dual U.S. and Dutch citizen.
Several riders were heading to Melbourne, Australia, for the 20th International AIDS Conference, including the well-known AIDS researcher Joep Lange and his colleague Jacqueline van Tongeren.
“Joep was a man who knew no barriers,” said the Academic Medical Center, the hospital where Lange worked. “He was a great inspiration for everybody who wanted to do something about the AIDS tragedy in Africa and Asia.”
A nun, Sister Philomene, who taught at a school in Sydney, Australia, was also on the Kuala Lumpur-bound aircraft, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. When news reached the Kincoppal-Rose Bay school, hundreds of students and teachers gathered together in her honor, shedding tears and sharing hugs during an assembly.
Several of the passengers were making their way to vacation destinations. Dutch national Cor Pan and his girlfriend, Neeltje, were going to soak up some sun at a beach in Malaysia.
Just before takeoff, Pan made a joke about missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Facebook.
“If it should disappear, this is what it looks like,” Pan said, posting a photo of the plane to his account.
A note was taped to Neeltje’s flower shop on Friday. “Dear Cor and Neeltje. This is unwanted, unbelievable and unfair. Rest in peace. We will never forget you,” it read.
One Dutch student, Karlijn Keijzer, had been studying in the United States and was going on a trip with her boyfriend.
“I’m just in disbelief and expecting Karlijn to pop up on Facebook and tell everybody she’s OK,” her friend, Rachel Weigler, told ABC News.
At least 80 children are believed to have been on board the jet. Nick Norris, 69, was returning from a family vacation with his three grandchildren — Mo, 12, Otis, 8, and Evie, 10 — when the surface-to-air missile hit the aircraft.
Norris’ son, Brack, 24, told the Australian Broadcasting Company that his father was accompanying the children home so they could return to school. Brack and his wife had stayed behind in Amsterdam.
He thought it was “ridiculous” when he got the call bearing the bad news.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said, adding, “I loved my dad extraordinarily and they were amazing kids.”
