100 HIV researchers dead in Malaysian Airlines flight shot down over Ukraine

100 HIV researchers dead in Malaysian Airlines flight shot down over Ukraine

The global HIV research community is in mourning after it was revealed that many of the passengers on Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, shot down over the Ukraine, were traveling to attend the 2014т International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

 

‘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,’ conference organizers wrote in a public statement 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.’

 

A list of the passengers has not yet been made public but it is understood that past president of the International AIDS Society Joep Lange is among the dead, as was World Health Organization media adviser Glenn Thomas.

 

Also killed are believed to be Pim de Kuijer and Martine de Schutter, who worked for organizations associated with the AIDS Fonds foundation.

 

It is believed that around 100 of the 298 passengers on the flight were traveling to the conference, having boarded in Amsterdam to fly to Kuala Lumpur to join another flight to Melbourne.

 

The plane is believed to have been shot down by ethnic Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine who mistook it for a Ukrainian air force plane.

 

Source: Gay Star News