A 24-year-old Ontario medical student, Andrei Anghel has been identified as the lone Canadian killed in the Malaysia Airlines plane that was shot down in Ukraine.
Andrei's family disclosed the news Friday. His father Sorin Anghel told media that Andrei was studying in Romania but had taken that flight for a vacation in Bali.
“We got the information that the flight was shot down and we knew that he took that flight so we just assumed. Later we got the confirmation, from actually Durham police came here and they gave us the official,” said Anghel.
Furthermore, US intelligence officials are saying that the flight was taken down by a surface-to-air missile in an eastern Ukraine area controlled by pro-Russian separatists. However, there are no confirmations yet about who fired the missile.
Andrei is described as a kind and outgoing man by his father.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has issued a statement expressing shock and grief over the news. He has also suggested that Canada is willing to assist authorities in determining the cause of the crash.
Of the victims killed in the tragic crash, 189 have been identified as Dutch, 29 Malaysian, 28 Australian, 12 Indonesian, nine Britons, four German, four Belgian, three Filipinos and one person each from Canada, New Zealand and Hong Kong, according to the airlines and governments of the specific countries. Two passengers' nationalities remain unconfirmed.
