Canada-bound students die in Iran air crash

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Flags were flown at half-mast

At least 40 Iranian students and teachers from universities in Canada were killed aboard Ukrainian Airlines Flight 572 which came down over Tehran in January.

The plane was shot down shortly after take-off by hyper-vigilant Iranian air defence personnel, who mistook the plane for a hostile incoming aircraft, following the air strike by US forces that killed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

The Iranian students killed in the crash were mostly returning to universities in Canada after Christmas holidays. The University of Alberta reported 10 students and staff lost in the disaster. The University of Windsor held a vigil for five of their students, and flags were flown at half-mast for three Iranian students from the University of British Columbia. The University of Toronto, Western University and the University of Waterloo also reported losses.

The community colleges sector was also affected – among the dead was Delaram Dadashnejad, who was studying English at Langara College in British Columbia, and Dr Razgar Rahimi, who taught computer engineering at Ontario’s Fleming College.

Image courtesy of UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA
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MATT SALUSBURY, news editor and journalist, has worked for EL Gazette since 2007. He is also joint Chair of the London Freelance Branch of the National Union of Journalists and co-edits its newsletter, the Freelance. He taught English language for 15 years in the Netherlands, in Turkey, in a North London further education college and now as an English for Academic Purposes tutor, most recently at the London School of Economics. He is a native English speaker and is also fluent in Dutch.