Air France 447 - Among the Victims on Air France Flight, Doctors, Dancers and Royalty
They were dancers and doctors, engineers and executives, and even royalty. Many were parents, and eight were children.
Michael Harris and his wife, Anne Harris, in a photograph provided by relatives.
The passengers on the ill-fated Air France Flight 447 were from nations throughout Europe as well as from Africa, South America, Asia, the United States and Canada.
As hope dwindled on Tuesday for finding any survivors of Air France Flight 447, which disappeared over the Atlantic late Sunday night, information began to trickle out about the diverse group that had been traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on the 11-hour flight. The airline has not yet released a list of passengers, but around the world, relatives and friends have begun to talk about those they now assume are lost.
One British victim, Alexander Bjoroy, an 11-year-old pupil at Clifton College preparatory school in Bristol, in southwest England, was returning to school after spending a half-term with his family in Brazil.
John Milne, the headmaster of Clifton, said in a statement it was “with deep regret” that he could confirm Alexander — a British passport holder — was a passenger on the doomed flight.
Eithne Walls, 29, was a young Irish doctor working in Dublin’s Eye and Ear Hospital. But before starting her medical studies she worked full-time as a dancer in the Riverdance troupe and continued to perform part-time during her six years at Trinity medical school. She joined the troupe in 1998, and went on to perform on Broadway as well as in France and China. She was also with the troupe when it performed its first show at the renowned Gaiety Theater in Dublin in 2004, said Merle Frimark, a spokeswoman for Riverdance North America.
“She still has hundreds of friends in Riverdance, and it’s all over the news in Ireland,” Ms. Frimark said in an interview. “I’ve gotten so many calls and skypes and text messages from different dancers. They’re all very upset because many of them in the show knew her so well.
“She was a lovely, lovely girl,” she added.
Dr. Walls had been traveling with two fellow doctors — Aisling Butler, 26, and Jane Deasy, 27 — to a reunion with other friends in Rio de Janeiro. They were returning from a two-week holiday, Ms. Frimark said.
John Butler told The Associated Press that his daughter, who celebrated her 26th birthday just over two weeks ago, was a keen doctor who enjoyed life to the fullest.
She was doing an internship in Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, and was to move onto St James’ Hospital in the city next month. “We know Aisling is gone, we are sure of that,” Mr. Butler said.
Prince Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, 26, a member of Brazil’s now-defunct royal family and a descendant of Dom Pedro II, the nation’s last emperor, was on the plane, the royal family said in a statement to the press.
Two Americans on board were identified as Michael Harris, 60, a geologist living in Brazil and orginally from Greenville, S.C., and his wife, Anne Harris, 54, originally from Lafayette, La.
Mr. Harris, known as “Butch,” had worked in Houston with the international division of Devon Energy until last July, when he and his wife relocated to Rio de Janeiro to work in the small office there, a company spokesman, Chip Minty, said Tuesday. “Obviously, we’re shocked by the news, all of our employees are,” Mr. Minty said. Mr. Harris and his wife were flying to Paris for a vacation before he was to participate in a training seminar in Spain.
“They both were so full of life and took every opportunity that was handed to them,” said Charlstie Laytin, 31, the couple’s niece, who lives in Island Park, N.Y.
Nine salesmen and one executive from CGED, an electrical materials distributor from Limoges, France, were on the plane with their spouses after winning a four-day vacation to Brazil, according to Le Figaro newspaper.
The French tiremaker Michelin lost three executives, including two senior Brazilian managers and Christine Pieraerts, a young French engineer, the company announced.
Air France said 11 of the 12 crew members were French, but the airline did not release their names.
The flight captain, 58, joined Air France in 1988 and had 11,000 hours of flight hours including 1,700 on jets similar to the one that that disappeared. The two co-pilots were 37 and 32 and had over 9,000 flight hours between them.
The head of the cabin crew was 49, and his deputies were 54 and 46 years old, the airline said. Of the six flight attendants, who were between 24 and 44 years old, five were French and one was Brazilian.
Another of the Britons, Arthur Coakley, had been working on an oil rig in Brazil for four weeks and was only on the flight because previous departures had been changed, his wife Patricia told The Telegraph.
La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera reported that one of the Italians on board, a former mayor in the Trentino region, was one of three officials in a humanitarian delegation to Brazil that was inaugurating a swimming pool for children with disabilities.
The airline said victims included 2 Americans, an Argentine, an Austrian, a Belgian, 58 Brazilians, 5 Britons, a Canadian, 9 Chinese, a Croatian, a Dane, a Dutch citizen, an Estonian, a Filipino, 61 French citizens, a Gambian, 26 Germans, 4 Hungarians, 3 Irish, an Icelander, 10 Italians, 5 Lebanese, 2 Moroccans, 3 Norwegians, 2 Poles, a Romanian, a Russian, 3 Slovakians, 2 Spaniards, a Swede, 6 Swiss and a Turk.
Liz Robbins contributed reporting.
