Passengers from 35 countries were on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi that crashed on Sunday, killing all 157 people.
Like any major international flight, the plane was packed with passengers from across the world. This one had professors from Kenya, aid workers from Ethiopia, a career ambassador from Nigeria and a fisheries consultant from Britain among others including a family of six.
Among the victims were 9 Britons, 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, 9 Ethiopians, 8 Chinese, Americans, Italians and 5 Germans, according to a passenger list published by Ethiopian officials. It was initially reported that seven UK nationals were on the flight, but another two passengers were discovered to be dual nationals travelling on another passport.
A number of passengers are believed to have been affiliated with the UN while some were heading to job trainings, others were simply going home.
On Monday, as the identities of more victims were reported, heartache rippled through convention halls, classrooms and living rooms across the globe. Tributes flowed on social media.
Here’s what is known about some of the victims who were on board the Boeing 737 Max 8.
Husein Swaleh
Former secretary general of the national federation and high-ranking football official, Hussein Swaleh Mtetu is among the 32 Kenyans who perished on Sunday.
Husein Swaleh was reportedly returning home after serving as Commissioner in the CAF Champions League match between Ismaily SC (Egypt) and TP Mazembe (Democratic Republic of Congo) played on Friday in Alexandria.
Mr. Hussein Swaleh was appointed as CAF Match Commissioner for 2018-2020. He was the secretary general of Kenya Football Federation (KFF) when Kenya last played at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Tunisia 2004.
Senior Capt Yared Mulugeta Gatechew, who was of Kenyan and Ethiopian heritage, was the main pilot on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
He had been working for the airline since November 2007 with the company saying he had a “commendable performance” with more than 8,000 hours in the air.
Nigeria’s retired diplomat, Ambassador Abiodun Bashua. Ambassador Abiodun Bashua was a retired Nigerian Foreign Service Officer who worked for African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) and the UN Office to the AfricanUnion. In January 2019, he was nominated Interim Chair of the Nigerian Community in Ethiopia.
36-year-old Joanna Toole, was from Exmouth, UK, but was living in Rome, according to her father Adrian Toole. She has over 15 years working experience in international animal welfare organisations.
Sarah Auffret was a University of Plymouth graduate and a polar tourism expert.
Ms Auffret was on her way to Nairobi to talk about the Clean Seas project in connection with the UN Environment Assembly, according to her Norway-based employers Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO).
Ms Auffret also held French citizenship, Norwegian media reported.
Canadian and Nigerian-born Prof Pius Adesanmi, the director of Carleton University’s Institute of African Studies was also confirmed dead.
“The contributions of Pius Adesanmi to Carleton are immeasurable,” said Pauline Rankin, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Prof Adesanmi was travelling to Nairobi to take part in a conference organised by the African Union, reports say.
Derick Lwugi, 54, was an accountant and pastor from Calgary. He is described as a “pillar” of Calgary’s Kenyan community.
He leaves behind his wife, who is a domestic abuse councillor, and three children aged 17, 19 and 20.
Kosha Vaidya, 37, and her husband Prerit Dixit, 45 were taking their 14-year-old daughter Ashka and 13-year-old daughter Anushka to Nairobi – where Kosha was born.
Relatives told Canadian media that the family of Indian origin only planned the trip 10 days before. Kosha’s parents, Pannagesh Vaidya, 73, and Hansini Vaidya, 67, decided to join them as it had been 35 years since the couple had been in Kenya.
Danielle Moore, 24, was travelling to a UN environment conference in Nairobi.
Ms Moore studied marine biology at Dalhousie University and later at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences in 2015. She was working both as a member of the clean ocean advocacy group Ocean Wise and as an education lead at the charity Canada Learning Code.
Sam Pegram, 25, from Penwortham in Lancashire, was an intern with the Norwegian Refugee Council, based in Geneva.
Siraje Hussein Abdi was a 32-year-old Somali-American who had lived in the US since 2002 and was visiting relatives in Africa. He had spent three months in Morocco where his wife lives and had decided to go to Nairobi to see his siblings, his sister Ardo told Voice of America Somali.
Oliver Vick, 45, was travelling to a posting with the UN in Somalia.
Joseph Waithaka, 55, was a Kenyan and British dual national who moved to the UK in 2004 and worked for the Humberside probation service in Hull before returning to live in Kenya in 2015.
Jordi Dalmau Sayol, 46, was a Catalan chemical engineer who was on a business trip. He was working for a water infrastructure company that was awarded a water desalination project in Kenya, according to the Spanish daily La Vanguardia.
Pilar Martínez Docampo, 32, worked for an aid organization and was traveling to Kenya to give language classes to children, according to La Opinión, a newspaper in her home region of Galicia, in northwestern Spain.
Details have not yet emerged about victims from China (eight), five other Italian nationals, the US (eight), France (seven), Egypt (six), four other German nationals, Austria (three), two other Swedish nationals, as well as two each from Spain, Israel, Morocco and Poland, and one from Belgium, Djibouti, Indonesia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Serbia, Uganda, Yemen, and Nepal.
