The Canadian victim of the downed Malaysia Airlines flight was a 24-year-old medical student from Ajax, just east of Toronto.
Andrei Anghel studied biomedical science at the University of Waterloo before moving to his native Romania to attend medical school. Anghel was en route to Bali for a vacation, his sister told CTV News.
“He was always a smart kid and he never got in trouble,” Lexi Anghel said of her brother.
The siblings were born in Romania and moved to Canada in 1998, when Andrei was eight years old.
“I’m angry that he’s gone, only because he was so young,” Anghel said. “He had so much life ahead of him.”
Anghel said her brother had met his girlfriend at medical school, and the two were going to Bali for a five-week hiking trip.
On his LinkedIn profile, Anghel wrote that he was “passionately interested in the science of living things, always questioning.
“Why do cells strive for life? What defines life?”
There is much to be learned “from the simplest forms of life,” he went on. “I plan to learn and bring new knowledge to the world.”
Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, who represents the Ajax riding where Anghel lived, offered his condolences Friday.
Speaking at an event in Toronto, Alexander said he met with Anghel’s family earlier in the day.
”They are of course devastated by this loss and our hearts go out to all of them,” he said.
Alexander said Anghel was a “hardworking young man” who was pursuing his dream of becoming a doctor.
University of Waterloo president Feridun Hamdullahpur issued a statement Friday to say the school community “is shocked and saddened” by Anghel’s death and to offer the young man’s family “heartfelt condolences.”
“This deplorable act has rocked the world’s scientific and research community,” Hamdullahpur said. “Our thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues of all of those who died in this tragic event.”
Ajax Mayor Steve Parish offered Anghel’s family “heartfelt condolences and sympathies” on behalf of city council.
The Department of Foreign Affairs would not confirm the identity of the flight’s Canadian victim. A spokesperson would only say that the department is “aware of at least one Canadian citizen” who is among the dead. Consular officials “stand ready to provide assistance.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement late Thursday to say he and his wife Laureen were “shocked and saddened” to learn of the incident.
All 298 passengers and crew were killed in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Thursday. U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that a surface-to-air missile shot the plane out of the sky over a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
Obama said it is too early to conclude exactly what happened, and called for an international investigation. No one has taken responsibility for the attack.
The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
A representative of the airline said 189 of the flight’s passengers were Dutch. Another 29 were Malaysian, 28 were Australian, 12 were from Indonesia, and nine were from the United Kingdom. There were four passengers each from Germany and Belgium, three from the Philippines and one each from Canada, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
The nationalities of two of the passengers have yet to be confirmed.
