Flight PS752'S destruction shook our city to its core
Immense loss for Iranian community as 13 Edmontonians died in missile strike
The fiery crash happened on the other side of the world. But the shock wave hit Edmonton hard.
On Jan. 8, Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was taking off from Tehran en route to Kyiv when it crashed.
The world would later come to learn the horrific truth, that the plane was shot out of the sky by an Iranian missile.
Tensions in the region were high, with Iran launching retaliatory strikes on U.S. positions after an American drone strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. That attack was in response to an attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
This mass toll of civilian casualties — all 176 people on board, including nine crew and 167 passengers, were killed — amid an increasing conflict between two adversaries caused a stern rebuke from the global community.
Closer to home, initial reports indicated that more than two dozen people from Edmonton's Iranian community could have been killed.
While that number was eventually confirmed to be 13 Edmontonians out of 55 Canadians killed, it didn't make the loss any less immense for the tight-knit community.
The loss was felt especially hard at the University of Alberta. Engineering professors Mojgan Daneshmand and Pedram Mousavi were killed, along with their daughters.
Newlyweds Arash Pourzarabi and Pouneh Gorji, both grad students, were among the dead.
Nasim Rahmanifar, 25, was a master's degree student in mechanical engineering.
Amir Hossein Saeedinia was a PHD student at the Center for Design of Advanced Materials. Elnaz Nabiyi was a graduate research assistant fellow with the Alberta School of Business.
Mohammad Mahdi Elyasi, while he had moved to Toronto after graduation, had been a U of A student in 2017.
Shekoufeh Choupannejad, a city doctor, and her daughters Sarah Saadat and Saba Saadat, were also killed in the crash.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the events a “Canadian tragedy,” while Premier Jason Kenney said the vast loss of Canadian talent was due to “a chain of actions routed in the all too human failure to resolve conflicts peacefully.”
The outpouring of support culminated in a large public memorial service at the Saville Community Sports Centre on Jan. 13.
A report was released earlier this month by former federal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale, Trudeau's special adviser on the crash.
In it, Goodale suggested that Iran should not be investigating a crash that it caused. The Canadian government has not accepted Iran's assertions that human error was to blame. Six people have been charged by Iran in connection with the case.