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Germanwings crash: First victims named

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Germanwings crash: First victims named
Students gather at a memorial outside the Joseph König School in Haltern am See, which lost 16 students and two teachers in the crash. Photo: Sascha Schuermann/AFP

A "magnificent" father of three with a baby on the way, two renowned opera singers and a mother on her way back to Manchester with her baby are just some of the victims of Tuesday's Germanwings crash.

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A day after the tragic Germanwings crash more details are beginning to emerge about the people who boarded the flight just before 10am in Barcelona and never arrived at their destination, Dusseldorf. 

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The majority of the plane's 150 passengers were from Germany (67) and Spain (45). It has also been confirmed that there were three Kazakstani nationals, two Mexicans, two Australians, two Argentinians, two Japanese, one Belgian, one Turkish, one Israeli, one Colombian, one Dutch and one Danish passenger. 

Opera singers 

Opera singer Oleg Bryjak was born in Kazakhstan in the former Soviet Union and had performed on opera stages including in Paris, Zurich, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Sao Paolo and Tokyo, according to his website.

The 54-year-old bass-baritone had just performed the character Alberich inRichard Wagner's "Siegfried" at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Maria Radner, 34, an opera singer at the Deutsche Oper am Rhine in Dusseldorf, was travelling with her husband and baby after starring alongside Bryjak in Richard Wagner's Sigfried at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu. 

School children

An entire Year 10 Spanish class from German secondary school Joseph König Gymnasium was on the doomed flight – 16 teenagers and two teachers had just completed a week long exchange trip to Spain, living with families of students from the Instituto Giola

"This is certainly the darkest day in the history of our city," said Bodo Klimpel, the mayor of Haltern am See, the students' hometown in northwestern Germany.

A photograph taken outside the school in Germany. Photo: Sascha Schuerman / AFP

British victims 

The first British man to be named as one of the passengers aboard the Germanwings flights was Martyn Matthews, a 50-year-old father of two from Wolverhampton, reported the Telegraph.
 
He was on business in Barcelona,  He leaves a wife, Sharon, 48, and children Jade, 20, and Nathan, 23, it said.
 
The UK Foreign Office named the second British victim as 28-year-old Paul Andrew Bramley. 
It said in a statement that the man was from Hull, studied hospitality and hotel management, and was returning from a holiday with friends in Barcelona.
 
The third victim was the baby son of a Spanish mother who lived in Manchester. Marina Bandrés López-Belio (see below) was travelling with her baby son Julian Pracz-Bandres. 
 
Spanish victims 

"Magnificent father"

A loving father with his fourth child on the way, Josep Sabaté Casellas, or Pep to his friends, was travelling to a business meeting in Germany for his company, the fashion brand Esprit. He lived with his wife, Marta and three children, between the ages of three and seven, in the town of Carral, near A Coruña, Galicia.

"He was a beautiful person and a magnificent father," a staff member at the school his children attended told Diario Vasco. 

Manchester mother

Marina Bandrés López-Belio, from Huesca, was travelling along with her seven month old baby. The 37-year-old Spaniard lived in Manchester and had just been to attend the funeral of her uncle in Zaragoza. She had not been able to find a direct flight to Manchester so had opted to fly via Dusseldorf.  

Just married 
 
A 23-year-old man from La Llagosta, near Barcelona was travelling with his new wife. The couple had just got married on Saturday. The mayor of La Llagosta has expressed his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and has declared three days of official mourning in the town.

Three generations of same family

A grandmother, her daughter and grandaughter from Sant Cugat del Vallès in Catalonia were all travelling together on a visit to Dusseldorf, according to the Huffington Post.

 Wife of ERC staff member

The wife of a member of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party has been confirmed among the passengers.  Ariadna Falguera, from Olot, was travelling on business and has a small child, according to El País. The 33-year old worked at Paramita, a fashion label from Granada.

Mother visiting her children

Pilar Vicente Sebastián, 52, had been a teacher at Mare de Déu del Pilar school in the town of Bonrepòs i Mirambell in Valencia, for 25 years. A native of Meliana, Valencia, she was on her way to see her two children who were on Erasmus studying Engineering in Dusseldorf. 

"The inveterate traveller"

María de Pablo Nuño had returned to Spain to visit her family - one of her sisters lives in Barcelona. Nuño, 33, worked as a Spanish teacher in a German school and has been described in the Spanish press as an "inveterate traveller". She lived close to Strasburg and had recently got married. 

Work colleagues 

Rogelio Oficialdegui, 62, was head of Human Resources at Delphi, the automobile part manufacturer with a factory in Sant Cugat del Vallès, and was just about to retire after working for the company since 1986. El País reported that Oficialdegui, from Navara, had said the collective bargaining agreement he negotiated on Monday afternoon would be his last before he retired. 

Manuel Rives, 52, was a married father of three. He was the union representative at Delphi for the General Union of Workers (UGT) a major Spanish trade union. 

On the way to Cologne trade fair 

Two employees of Fira, Barcelona’s main trade fair centre, were on the flight, Victor Pascual and Anna Cantos. Victor Pascual was the director of the food trade fair BTA (Barcelona Food Technology). The pair were on their way to the Anuga Food Tec trade show in Cologne. 

Carles Milla Masanas was on the stricken flight, confirmed a colleague at Mimasa, the business he ran in Cornellà de Terri in Girona.

The rowing fan had been running the family business for over ten years and lived with his wife and two-year-old son. Masanas was also travelling to the Anuga Food Tec trade show in Cologne. 

 

Valencia Football fan

Another of those whose names has emerged is Sonia Cercek, believed to be a German national and a well-known supporter of Valencia Football Club. The club paid tribute to one of their biggest fans with an official statement on the club website.

The Valencia Football Club has issued a statement to show their condolences for the death of a fan in the accident. "We want to express our condolences and deep sorrow…Sonia along with her husband Oliver was a faithful follower of the our club and the President Amadeo Salvo has been in contact with the families to express the condolences of everyone at the club."

Two Spanish truck drivers

Fernando Martínez Rubio and Javier Moreno Navarro, who were travelling together, were also on the flight according to La Verdad newspaper. They were going to Germany to pick up a truck to drive back to Spain. 

Brothers

Two brothers from Teruel were also on the plane. Eusebio y Vicente Segundo were on the way to Germany to buy machinery for the business they ran together, according to the Huffington Post. 

Australian victims 

Mother and son Carol and Greig Friday were named as victims by Australia's foreign minister Julie Bishop. 

Dutch victim

Iris Claassen, 20, has been named among the victims of Tuesday's crash. She comes from the Dutch town of Deurne, according to the Huffington Post. 

Argentinian victims 

Gabriela Luján Maumus y Sebastián Greco, a couple on holiday in Europe, are among the victims according to Argentinian newspaper Clarín. Maumus was passionate about music and played bass guitar in the indie band Asalto al Parque Zoológico (Apzoo).

"The family are destroyed," a colleague of Maumus’ father told Argentinian media, "they speaking with France and looking to see which day they can fly out."

The third Argentinian victim is Juan Armando Pomo, who lived in the Paraguayan capital, Asunción, according to the Huffington Post. 

Israeli victim

Israel's foreign ministry has confirmed that Israeli citizen Eyal Baum, 39, was on the plane. Baum, who lived in Germany, was travelling for work. He originally comes from the city of Hod HaSharon in central Israel. 

Kazakhstani victims 

Kazakhstan's ministry of foreign affairs has confirmed to the Huffington Post that there were three Kazakhstani nationals on board the flight. Erbol Imankulov and Aizhan Isengalieva, aged 50 and 49, and their son, Adil Imankulov, aged 26. 

Japanese victims 

The Japanese government has confirmed that there were two Japanese nationals on the flight, named as Satoshi Nagata, 60 and  Junichi Sato, 40 who both lived in Dusseldorf. 

Mexican victims 

Daniela Ayon Razo and Dora Isela Salas Vázquez, who had double nationality, Mexican and Spanish, according to Mexican media quoted in the Huffington Post. 

Iranian victims 

Two sports journalists from Iran were among those on board. Milad Hojatoleslami was working for the Tasnim news site and Hussein Javadi was a reporter for the Vatan Emrouz newspaper, according to a report on the Tasnim news site. Both men were in Spain to cover Sunday's El Clasico football match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. 

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