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
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Cha
(297,275 posts)herding cats
(19,565 posts)Such good people for us to lose. We needed them, their voices and their work.
Cha
(297,275 posts)![](/emoticons/hug.gif)
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joshcryer
(62,276 posts)And his wife.
Who knows, what if Joep Lange was about to find a cure?
herding cats
(19,565 posts)The amount of loss for each life is heartbreaking, but for someone like him who dedicated his life to ending the deaths of others, it hits me even harder.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)![](/emoticons/candle.gif)
Fearless
(18,421 posts)![](/emoticons/banghead.gif)
sheshe2
(83,785 posts)![](/emoticons/candle.gif)
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... 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.
littlemissmartypants
(22,691 posts)![](/emoticons/candle.gif)
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)AngryDem001
(684 posts)died because of invisible lines on a map. Fuck. This. Planet.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)![](/emoticons/candle.gif)
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)It's not that these people were more important or anything like that. Every soul on board that plane is equally special and important.
It's that the Putinists are probably glad that a third of the passengers were AIDS researchers. Because they have no souls. They are the most degenerate people out there. I am sickened by this because I'm in the head of these psychopaths supporting the separatists and their twisted mindset, these kinds of things are "side issues."
Amonester
(11,541 posts)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"
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)They can be "happy" only 2/3rds were "innocent." I mean it, Putinists are deeply depraved individuals. I have seen it first hand. We have seen many get banned from DU once they make their views about LGBT known. Just today someone was going on about how LGBT was a "side issue."
Ugh...
defacto7
(13,485 posts)![](/emoticons/candle.gif)
Response to herding cats (Original post)
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nitpicker
(7,153 posts)Quantess
(27,630 posts)K & R
nitpicker
(7,153 posts)HIV/AIDS Researchers, Officials Perish In Malaysia Airlines MH17 Crash
(snip)
Rick Morton of The Australian wrote yesterday that, 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.
(Incoming International AIDS Society (IAS) president Chris Beyer told the Washington Post this hour that, the actual number may be much smaller, as conference organizers can only confirm seven people at this time.)
(snip)
Before the Australian National Press Club, Barré-Sinoussi reflected solemnly, I apologize if I dont feel so well. On that plane, it was probably many passengers coming to the AIDS Conference in Melbourne. It will be a great loss for the HIV/AIDS community including, if it is confirmed, our colleague Joep Lange (pronounced yoop lahn-guh) and collaborator Jacquile ((van Tongeren)).
(snip)
Im hesitant to repeat any other social media reports of AIDS 2014 delegates lost on the flight pending release of the passenger manifest by Malaysian Airlines. As of midnight Friday Malaysian time, only the names of the pilot and crew had been released.
But in addition to Drs. Lange and van Tongeren, Natures Declan Butler and Katia Moskvitch have confirmed the deaths of four other prominent meeting delegates:
Glenn Thomas, media relations coordinator at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Lucie van Mens, director of programme development and support for the Female Health Company.
Martine de Schutter, Aids Fonds.
Pim de Kuijer, writer, political activist, AIDS campaigner, parliamentary lobbyist for STOP AIDS NOW!
(snip)