Eight Winnipeggers, two U of M grads in Alberta among Canadians killed on Ukrainian jet By: Carol Sanders Posted: 12:11 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 Last Modified: 7:57 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 Updates

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Manitobans are mourning the loss of friends and colleagues among the 176 people killed Wednesday in the crash of a Ukrainian International Airlines jet outside Tehran.

At least eight Winnipeggers and two University of Manitoba grads teaching in Alberta were aboard the Kyiv-bound Boeing 737 that crashed minutes after takeoff. It’s believed 63 Canadian citizens were aboard Flight PS752.

Manitoba’s provincial flag will fly at half-mast in Memorial Park in their memory, Premier Brian Pallister said.

“We mourn alongside the families and friends of the Manitobans who were tragically taken from us,” he said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

U of M engineering Prof. Zahra Moussavi lost her good friend, Forough Khadem.

“She was full of life and her laughs is all I remember now,” Moussavi said from San Francisco.

Khadem, 38, earned her PhD in immunology in 2016 at the U of M. The 38-year-old was described as a scientific, tech-savvy, cross-cultural communicator whose research helped protect mankind and animals against deadly infectious diseases.

She was a member of the New Media Manitoba board of directors, and worked at Mitacs non-profit national research organization since 2016 as a business development specialist.

None of Khadem’s colleagues at the company that connects industry with post-secondary institutions to solve business challenges wanted to be interviewed Wednesday.

Chief business development officer Eric Bosco issued a prepared statement on behalf of Mitacs. He remembered Khadem as a “a passionate supporter of innovation in Manitoba,” and extended condolences to her family and friends.

“We will remember Forough’s passion for Mitacs, enthusiasm for innovation in Manitoba, and her positive outlook on life. We will miss her humour, her kindness, and her warm spirit.”

That “positive outlook” was what Mehdi Sadeghi, 44, Bahareh Haj Esfandiari, 41, and their daughter, Anisa Sadeghi, 10, brought when they immigrated to Canada in 2016.

“They were lovely people, and it was the classic Canadian immigrant success story,” said Assiniboine Community College instructor Murray Oliver, who, along with his Iranian-Canadian wife, Dr. Afsaneh Oliver, and their daughter, Jozi, were family friends.

“They just bought a new home after living in an apartment,” Oliver said of the Winnipeg family killed in the jet crash. “They were both tireless workers.”

The engineers from Iran took low-paying entry-level jobs to get a foothold in a new country, he said. “They were working their way up — they moved here for their child to have a beautiful life.”

The family had just bought their first home in Whyte Ridge when they went to Iran for a visit.

“Mehdi was really concerned to see his family progress and advance,” Oliver said. “Bahareh had a very light spirit and a wonderful smile. They were a perfect counterpoint to one another and Anisa. She was a a lovely kid… It’s such a loss for Manitoba.

“I think of all of the folks who died,” he said, “they were all people of such great promise whose lives were cut short in the most senseless tragedy.”

Two other U of M grads turned professors at the University of Alberta — Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand — were also killed along with their two children, said family friend Mahsa Pourazad, who lives in Vancouver.

“Pedram did his PhD (at U of M) and Mojgan did her masters then moved to Alberta,” said Pourazad, a civil engineer and fellow Iranian-Canadian. “Both were professors at the engineering department of U of A.”

U of M Iranian Students Association board member Amir Shirzadi identified four other crash victims from Winnipeg: Amirhossein Ghasemi, 32, Amirhossein Ghorbani, 21, Farzaneh Naderi, 38, and her son, Noojan Sadr, 11.

Ghasemi had gone to Iran see his fiancée, said Pourazad, who was struggling with the loss of so many people she knew. “My mind does not work right now.”

Pembina Trails School Division lowered its flags to half-mast in honour of two of its students at two different schools who died in the plane crash. The children were in grades 5 and 6, but the school division would not confirm their identities.

“(Our) student services team, including social workers and psychologists, are working diligently to support the needs of students,” the division posted online.

The University of Manitoba is also offering counselling to those affected by the loss of colleagues and mentors, said president and vice-chancellor David Barnard.

“It’s a shock and there’s a terrible sense of loss and disappointment — and a sense that something that seemed in the first instance to be at a distance turned out to have an impact right here, where we live and work, and there’s a shock that comes with,” Barnard said in an interview Wednesday.

He mourns the province’s loss of potential.

“The University of Manitoba attracts people from many parts of the world and, through their studies and research activities, some stay and help build the local economy,” he said.

The U of M also lowered its flag to half-mast.

In his statement, the Manitoba premier said: “On behalf of all Manitobans and all members of the Manitoba legislature, I offer my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the victims. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you during this very difficult time.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.

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