PS752 Passengers
Parisa Eghbalian and Reera Esmaeilion
Aurora, Ont.-based dentist Parisa Eghbalian and her daughter Reera Esmaeilion were also identified by family as victims of the crash.
“She was a wonderful woman,” Hamed Esmaeilion said of his wife. “And I still love her.”
In an interview with CBC News, Esmaeilion described his daughter Reera as a bright and athletic. He said she spoke English, French and Farsi fluently and also excelled in soccer.
“She was the best girl in the world, I think.”
Mohammad Abaspour Ghadi
Age 33, from Windsor, Ont.
Civil engineer
An engineer working in construction and University of Windsor graduate, Mr. Ghadi followed his wife Zahra Naghibi to Canada in November, 2017, and was known in Windsor’s Iranian community for running a chat group for recent immigrants, according to reports from the Windsor Star.
Mojtaba Abbasnezhad
Age 26, from Toronto
PhD student, University of Toronto
Mr. Abbasnezhad was a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s engineering department. He was 26 and his mother passed away about two years ago.
“The day I left Iran I didn’t shed a tear, I had stress but didn’t miss anything,” Mr. Abbasnezhad wrote a week ago on Twitter, according to a translation from his friend Pooya Poolad. “After my mom passed away, I lost my roots to any place. Nowhere feels home to me, Toronto, Tehran, Ahvaz all are the same.”
Mr. Poolad, another PhD candidate at U of T, said the pair were close. “I don’t remember anything but kindness from him. He was still actively helping students that are wishing to get admission from Canadian universities even after he got here,” Mr. Poolad said in an e-mail.
Mr. Abbasnezhad also tweeted about the possibility of war before boarding the fatal flight.
“I had predicted there would be war just before my flight. Forgive me if you’ve seen any good or bad [in me],” he wrote, according to a translation of the post. He included a laughing emoji in the tweet.
Maryam Agha Miri
Maryam Agha Miri died along with her husband Shahrokh Eghbali Bazoft and their eight-year-old daughter Shahzad Eghbali Bazoft. The family lived in Toronto, said Sharokh’s niece, Nadia Eghbali.
“Maryam was a kind person, a devoted mother, wife and friend,” Ms. Eghbali said. “She always made us feel welcome, she made you feel loved.”
Iman Aghabali
Mr. Aghabali was an electrical engineer who moved to McMaster University in 2017 as a PhD student focused on hybrid automobiles. He posted a selfie with his friend Mehdi Eshaghian, who was studying in the same faculty at McMaster, moments before the Ukrainian International flight took off from Tehran. The Iranian student association at McMaster saluted a man who, it said, “always celebrated Iranian traditions with our community.” In a statement, the university confirmed the man was on the flight. “McMaster is a tightly knit community and there will be many faculty, staff, colleagues, friends and fellow students who need our support and caring at this tragic time,” said university president David Farrar.
Rahmtin Ahmadi
Rahmtin was a Grade 3 student at Darlington Public School in North York. He was travelling with his mother, Behnaz Ebrahimi.
Mahsa Amirliravi
Fareed Arasteh
His widow’s cousin, Golnaz Shaverdi, said he spent his last days talking about his future. “He talked about all their plans and their dreams about life,” she said, breaking into tears. “He was young. It’s not fair that it happened to him.”
Ms. Shaverdi said the family is shaken by the news of his death, especially his new bride, Maral. “She’s devastated. He was such a nice guy. Everyone is, of course, devastated and they are also very worried for his wife, because she’s going through a very hard time now.”
Arshia Arbabbahrami
Mr. Arbabbahrami was an international student at Calgary’s Western Canada High School. The Grade 12 student had been studying in the city for three years, and principal Carma Cornea said Mr. Arbabbahrami was involved in the track and field, swim and dive teams at the school.
“Arshia was returning to Canada after spending the holidays with his family in Iran,” Ms. Cornea said in a note to school families Wednesday.
“He dreamt of being a doctor, and was a leader in our community who many students looked up to.”
School officials announced the difficult news to students just after lunch Wednesday, and the guidance department set up a memorial table. Students are writing condolence notes that will be shared with the family.
“This tragedy has deeply impacted our community, and reminds us of the importance and value of heartfelt connections to one another,” Ms. Cornea wrote.
Both of Mr. Arbabbahrami’s parents are also doctors in Tehran, said Shereen Hariri, a cousin of his mother’s. The athletic Mr. Arbabbahrami even won a Tai Chi competition just weeks ago, while back in Iran for the holidays.
His parents are completely devastated, Ms. Hariri said.
“Everyone loved him. He was such a good kid,” she said. “Our lives are about our kids.”
Evin Arsalani
The death toll includes a young GTA family: Evin Arsalani, her husband, Hiva Molani, and their young daughter Kurdia Molani, Ms. Arsalani’s brother Amir confirmed to The Globe and Mail.
The trio were heading back to Ajax, Ont., after travelling to Iran a month ago to attend a wedding, another brother, Omid Arsalani, told CBC. He said the last time he spoke with his sister was last week, on her 30th birthday.
“She was happy, she saw family members, all the people in the family she hasn’t seen in years,” he told CBC.
Mohammad Asadi Lari
Mr. Asadi Lari was a University of Toronto medical student who was travelling with his younger sister, Zeynab, according to friend Bushra Ebadi. They were in Iran to see their parents and younger sister.
Both siblings – who, according to their social-media profiles, immigrated to Canada in 2013 – believed in the power of education and dedicated their short lives to helping people. Mr. Asadi Lari co-founded STEM Fellowship, which mentors youth in science, technology, engineering and math. He was a youth adviser for the Canadian Red Cross as well as a member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. “He was one of the smartest, kindest, genuine people I know. He was so full of potential,” said Mohit Sodhi, a friend and executive at STEM Fellowship.
Zeynab Asadi Lari
Ms. Asadi Lari was in her third year studying science at the University of Toronto. She and her older brother, Mohammad, were on the plane after a visit to their parents and younger sister in Iran, friend Bushra Ebadi said.
Ms. Asadi Lari was passionate about giving back to her community, as was her brother. She called education a weapon that was stronger than any other. “They had a huge impact on everyone they met,” said Ms. Ebadi, president of the youth advisory group at the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
The siblings immigrated to Canada seven years ago, according to their social-media profiles.
Mahmoud Attar
Mahmoud Attar went to Iran to pack up treasures like photos for family members in Canada. He loved life, children, and helping others.
“He was very passionate in life,” Zehreh Attar, Mr. Attar’s sister, said. “He loved life. But they didn’t allow him to have more from this life.”
Mr. Attar was a grandfather and had a soft spot for children. He had three children and helped one of his daughters raise her child.
“He was always happy with children all around; he was playing with them,” his sister said. “He was very quick to understand what the children want, what they wish.”
He displayed the same kindness with adults, even those with whom he disagreed. “He was open-minded,” Ms. Attar said. “He was always good to other people, no matter what they think or what they have in mind.”
Mr. Attar’s wife lives in Iran, but has spent time in Canada, his sister said. Ms. Attar communicated with her brother just before takeoff. “The last moment in the airport, he wanted to know if I needed something,” she said.
Roja Azadian
Roja Azadian was supposed to travel to Canada for the first time with her husband, who has been studying at Algonquin College in Ottawa, but a mix-up over his ticket meant he could not get on the plane with her.
“He was thinking, ‘I’m going to send her and then I’m going to be back on the next flight,’” said Leila Hojabri, a friend of Ms. Azadian’s husband.
He called a friend in Ottawa, asking if he could pick Ms. Azadian up at the airport and ensure she was safe.
“She wasn’t sure if she should come to Canada, and he was just building here and getting ready for her to join him and it’s just a really, really tragic story,” Ms. Hojabri said.
Ghanimat Azhdari
Despite her small physical stature, Ms. Azhdari was a firecracker – a proud woman from a tribal territory in Iran described by those who knew her as a champion of Indigenous rights and biodiversity.
Ms. Azhdari had travelled to Iran in mid-December to visit her family, on holiday from her PhD program at the University of Guelph in Ontario. She started her studies in September, working on the issue of conservation under the supervision of Dr. Faisal Moola in the Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics. “I was just talking to Ghanimat before she got on the plane,” he told The Globe. “The shock is sort of wearing off, and I’m overcome with emotion.”
In an e-mail exchange before the flight departed, Dr. Moola and Ms. Azhdari discussed her return to the lab and the increasing tensions in the Middle East. “Everything in Iran is safe, secure and normal,” she wrote. “There is just news full of menace from both sides and we hope for peace in 2020 in the region as well as the world.” She told Dr. Moola she would be landing in Toronto on Wednesday afternoon. He was to pick her up.
“See you soon,” Ms. Azhdari wrote.
Mehraban Badiei
Mehraban Badiei was an undergraduate in health sciences at the University of Ottawa who dreamed of becoming a doctor. She spoke English and French fluently before coming to Canada for the last two years of high school and was academically ambitious. But her family friend, Mohsen Yarmohamadi, said she will be remembered most for her “selflessness and friendly smile.”
“She had a great impact on our family and all the people she was in touch with [through] her nice and generous character,” he said.
The daughter of a veterinarian father and a mother trained in economics, Mehraban “touched so many hearts here,” said Mr. Yarmohamadi, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill. “So many people showed up” to a memorial for her in her adoptive home, he said.
Mehraban’s mother plans to start a charity in her daughter’s honour “to help kids follow their dreams.”
Samira Bashiri
Ms. Bashiri worked in a lab in Windsor, Ont., trying to find cures for diseases. She and her husband, University of Windsor PhD student Hamidreza Setareh, had been in Canada for about a year, and Ms. Bashiri had recently completed her citizenship exam, according to friend Rachel Smith. They had been visiting family in Iran before the plane crash.
Ms. Smith remembers the couple, nicknamed by some friends as Sami and Hami, as generous and said they worked hard to raise funds for a church mission to help orphans in Kenya. They would give without ever expecting anything in return, she said. “They just want friendship and they just want to show their love to people,” she said. “They were blessed and they were blessings. It was really an honour knowing them.”
Mohammad Amin Beiruti
Mr. Beiruti was a PhD computer-science student who dreamed of working one day for Google or Microsoft. He came to Canada to study at the University of Toronto in 2017.
In December, he went back to Iran and made a religious pilgrimage to Mashhad from his hometown of Qom. “He was on vacation visiting his family,” said Mojtaba Ashourloo, his Toronto roommate. Mr. Beiruti was not married, he said, but planned to start a family after landing a job at a Big Tech company. In Toronto, he spent summer days biking in High Park, the Don Valley and the Beaches. When the weather turned colder, he liked to play Xbox and watch shows on Netflix such as Friends.
Mr. Beiruti specialized in studying computer networks. He was among the U of T students whose names were released by the university.
“We are all heartbroken,” university president Meric Gertler said.
Negar Borghei
Negar Borghei arrived in Canada in 2018 as an experienced nutritionist and translator. Her husband, Alvand Sadeghi, a talented pianist, moved to Toronto last April to join her. She entered McGill University in 2019 to pursue a masters degree in human nutrition and hoped to finish it next year. A family friend told Reuters that she was travelling back to Canada with her husband, and two of his family members, on the Ukraine International flight. McGill declined to identify Ms. Borghei, citing privacy concerns, but confirmed that one of its students died on the flight. “I can’t and I don’t want to believe that my dearest and closest cousin who I grew up with was killed,” her cousin Kimia Maleki wrote in a Facebook post.