DISASTER SENDS WAVES OF GRIEF ACROSS CANADA
138 of 176 who died when airliner went down outside of Tehran were connecting to Canada
A north Toronto high-schooler travelling with her mother. Two University of Alberta professors and their two children. A GTA realtor on holiday with his wife. At least a dozen university students — possibly more — returning after winter break.
As the names and stories of the 63 Canadians killed when a Ukrainian airliner slammed into a field outside Iran’s capital trickled out Wednesday, they revealed the full extent of a disaster that has sent waves of grief across Canada.
Those waves were felt in the nation’s Iranian-Canadian community, which lost dozens of its members; in the halls of academia, where many of the victims worked or studied; in the city of Edmonton, where many of those killed had lived; and in other bereaved communities from coast to coast.
In a flood of anguished tributes, the victims were identified Tuesday by those who knew them as promising students, gifted professors, cherished family members.
None of the176 passengers and crew on board Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 survived. As the day unfolded Wednesday, the Canadian toll of the disaster rose as universities from Halifax to Vancouver confirmed the list of victims included an as-yet untold number of international students and staff returning to class in this country.
At a news conference Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that in total138 passengers had been en route to a connecting flight from Kyiv to Toronto when the Boeing 737-800 jet crashed minutes after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. It was headed to the Ukrainian capital.
Those138 victims were “all people who won’t be coming home to their parents, their friends, their colleagues, or their
family,” said Trudeau, describing the incident as a “terrible tragedy.”
“All had so much potential. So much life ahead of them.”
Trudeau said “there is a clear need for answers” and he was “confident” Canadian officials “are going to be able to be a part of the investigation.”
In addition to the Canadians on board, Ukrainian officials said the flight was carrying 82 Iranians, 11 Ukrainian passengers and crew, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three Britons.
University of Alberta professors Mojgan Daneshmand and Pedram Mousavi, along with their daughters Daria and Dorina, were among those killed. A photo posted to Facebook shows the family smiling broadly in front of a sun-drenched lake, one of Mousavi’s arms cradling his daughter, while he embraces his wife with the other.
Nooran Ostadeian had known the couple since 2010 and counted them among her closest friends.
“They were like an example of the happiest couple that I’ve ever known in my life,” she said.
Ostadeian said the pair had been “great teachers for their students” and she hoped they would be remembered “as a symbol of love, community members who did a lot of dedication and contribution to the community.”
Payman Paseyan, a member of the Iranian-Canadian community in Edmonton, said he knew many of the passengers, and they had worked hard to build a life in their new home country.
“They leave behind families and people they love and they come to Canada and often they ’re second guessing, ‘Should I leave my family behind to do this?’ ” Paseyan said. “Then they move here and they do all this just to board a plane and have it all washed away. It’s devastating.”
The inexpensive route via Kyiv is popular for those travelling here from Iran because there have been no direct flights between Tehran and Canada since 2012, when Canada broke off diplomatic relations with Iran.
Other multinational airlines have likewise withdrawn from the country, said Ana Diamond, an Iranian-British citizen and researcher of Iran’s relations with the U.K. and U.S.
“This meant that many trusted airline companies, such as
British Airways and Air Canada, no longer operated in Iran,” she said in an email. “Ukrainian airlines offered a more affordable alternative.”
Wednesday afternoon, the connecting flight many of the victims had planned to take from Kyiv to Toronto landed at Pearson International Airport with scores of empty seats.
A passenger on the flight who identified himself as Parnav Phardwha told reporters that although he knew when he boarded that the plane was supposed to be carrying passengers who had been killed outside Tehran, it wasn’t until he was airborne that he felt the full weight of the tragedy.
“Because the seat right next to me was empty, and I realized that was probably somebody’s son, sister, daughter or father who should have been there but they couldn’t make it,” he said. “It was a very sad feeling.” Artem Mykhilyuk, a Ukrainian-Moldovian who is attending school in Canada, said he, too, didn’t at first grasp the significance of the vacant seats.
“I got three seats near me, they were all empty. And I was like, oh I have free space, I can lay down. And then it was like for a sec, oh my god, there could be people from the flight from Iran sitting there,” he said, visibly shaken as he recounted the experience.
Passengers said the flight crew gave no explanation for why so many seats were empty.
“The crew also seemed to be tense, because I’m pretty sure they lost friends as well,” Phardwha said.
Although many the victims came from Edmonton, members of Toronto’s Iranian community were also in mourning.
Along the stretch of Yonge St. between Finch and Steeles Ave. in North York, which is known for its large contingent of Iranians, people expressed their grief as they headed to work or visited one of the many Iranian restaurants, currency exchanges or grocers along the strip.
Adistraught Ozhan Amini, 26, said the tightly knit Iranian community had been rocked by the news of so many deaths.
“I’m afraid to read the list of those killed because I may know a lot of them,” he said. “Even though I didn’t lose any family, I knew some of these people and I can’t believe that with the blink of an eye they’re gone forever.”
Amini knew at least two victims, York University student Sadaf Hajiagjavand and Darya Toghian, and later found out that one of his high school classmates from Iran may also have been killed.
“It’s a disaster for our community,” he said. “Many of them were heading to Toronto, so we all know someone.”
The crash touched other parts of the GTA. The principal of Northern Secondary School, near Eglinton Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road, confirmed to the Star that Grade 10 student Maya Zibaie was on the plane with her mother.
In a statement sent to parents and the school community, principal Adam Marshall described Zibaie as “kind, happy and well-liked by her peers.”
A spokesperson for York Region District School Board said it has been made aware that “more than one of our students were killed in the tragic plane crash,” adding the board will not be releasing the students’ names, citing privacy concerns.
York University said a single student had been killed and the University of Toronto said six of its students were on the flight.
“We are all heartbroken,” U of T president Meric Gertler said in a statement.
By Wednesday afternoon, students attending nearly a dozen universities in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia had been confirmed among the dead.
The University of Alberta said between students, staff and alumni, the institution lost at least 10 community members in the disaster, though the school couldn’t immediately confirm the exact number.
In a tweet, Toronto Mayor John Tory said: “On behalf of all Toronto residents, we are saddened by the news of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. Our hearts are with Toronto’s Iranian and Ukrainian communities today.” The CN Tower was to go dark Wednesday in memory of those lost.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he is waiting to hear more about what happened and who was on the plane. “My heart breaks for the families and communities looking for answers about their loved ones,” he said. “You’re in our thoughts and prayers.”
The crash came hours after Iran launched a wave of ballistic missiles at military bases housing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, in retaliation for the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike that has ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East.
Whether the missile attack was in any way connected to the crash of Flight 752 remained unclear Wednesday, as officials offered contradictory information.
Ukrainian officials at first said the plane crashed as a result of a mechanical problem, but later walked that back, saying nothing had been ruled out. The Iranian military, meanwhile, disputed any suggestion the plane was shot down, claiming the pilot lost control after a fire broke out on an engine.
The aircraft, fully loaded with fuel for its 2,300-kilometre flight, smashed into farmland near the town of Shahedshahr on the outskirts of Tehran. Videos show fires lighting up the darkened fields before dawn and rows of body bags laid out along the side of a road.
The plane had been delayed from taking off from Tehran’s main airport by almost an hour. It never made it higher than 2,400 metres, data from the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 indicates.
The model of jet, the predecessor to Boeing’s grounded 737 Max, is widely used and has an excellent safety record.
Global Affairs Canada cautioned Wednesday against any non-essential travel to Iran “due to the volatile security situation, the regional threat of terrorism and the risk of arbitrary detention.” The agency said Canadians, particularly those holding dual CanadianIranian citizenship, were at risk of being arbitrarily questioned, arrested and detained.
At his press conference Trudeau advised anyone who believes they may have had loved ones on the doomed flight to contact Global Affairs Canada’s 24-hour Emergency Watch and Response Centre. Canadian citizens in Iran requiring assistance should contact the Canadian embassy in neighbouring Ankara, Turkey.
Wednesday’s crash was one of the deadliest air disasters involving Canadians.
In 1985 a bomb exploded and killed 329 people aboard an Air India flight from Montreal to New Delhi over the Atlantic Ocean. Most victims were Canadian.