Melbourne-bound AIDS 2014 delegates among those on MH17 flight
Last edited Thu Jul 17, 2014, 09:32 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Star Observer
REPORTS have emerged that among the passengers aboard the downed Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight in Ukraine were delegates, researchers and advocates bound for the AIDS 2014 conference in Melbourne.
Flight MH17 was shot down in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine this morning, claiming the lives of 298 passengers and crew. Authorities have said 27 Australians were on board.
Since the news broke, there has been a flurry of conflicting reports — mostly on social media — that up to 108 of those on board the flight were bound for Melbourne, via Kuala Lumpur, for the 20th International AIDS Conference which begins on Sunday.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has confirmed that a number of people on board the flight were travelling to Melbourne for the conference, but an exact figure has not yet been confirmed at the time of writing.
Read more: http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/local-news/melbourne-bound-aids-2014-delegates-among-those-on-mh17-flight/125312
This is very sad news, Joep Lange was an amazing man who will be dearly missed. We lost one of our good ones today.
Several of the passengers aboard the Malaysian Airlines flight that crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday were World Health Organization staffers heading to a conference on AIDS research in Australia, the Guardian reported.
Glenn Thomas, a spokesperson for WHO's Global TB Program, was among the victims, according to a fellow staffer. Global TB Program Coordinator Haileyesus Getahun shared the news via Twitter.
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The International AIDS Conference is taking place in Melbourne this weekend. The International AIDS Society, which organized the event, released a statement following the tragic news:
The International AIDS Society (IAS) today expresses its sincere sadness at receiving news that a number of colleagues and friends en route to attend the 20th International AIDS Conference taking place in Melbourne, Australia, were on board the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight that has crashed over Ukraine earlier today.
At this incredibly sad and sensitive time the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/who-malaysia-plane-crash-victims-aids-_n_5597547.html
As many as 108 on board were AIDS activist colleagues and family members.
It is believed that delegates to the 20th International AIDS Conference, due to begin on Sunday, will be informed today that 108 of their colleagues and family members died on MH17.
Among those thought to have been killed was prominent Dutch researcher Joep Lange, a former president of the International Aids Society.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/delegates-to-melbourne-aids-summit-on-doomed-flight-mh17/story-e6frg6nf-1226993197572?nk=1e1ce3abedbe9c88eaa5d21a3bdfeb5e
= new reply since forum marked as read
Such good people for us to lose. We needed them, their voices and their work. 
... every individual on that plane was valuable, don't get me wrong. But the loss of those 100 AIC members is incalculable. All that knowledge, all those lives, all those years... gone. Life means absolutely nothing to whomever was responsible for the downing of that Malaysian 777 airliner. 
or try to help the AIDS victims live longer lives or devote their lives and research to find a cure to save their lives.
I bet he's about to decorate the stupid Cossacks who killed them "by accident"
