Ethiopian Airlines crash: What we know about the victims

Ethiopian Airlines said 157 passengers and crew-members were killed when one of its jets crashed shortly after take-off from Ethiopia on Sunday morning.

Seven Britons and one Irish citizen were among the dead as were doctors, aid workers and three members of a Slovakian MP’s family.

Here is what we know so far about the victims:

– Joanna Toole, a 36-year-old from Exmouth, Devon, was heading to Nairobi to attend the UN Environment Assembly when she was killed.

Father Adrian described her as a “very soft and loving” woman whose “work was not a job – it was her vocation”.

“Everybody was very proud of her and the work she did, we’re still in a state of shock. Joanna was genuinely one of those people who you never heard a bad word about,” he told the DevonLive website.

He also said she used to keep homing pigeons and pet rats and travelled to the remote Faroe Islands to prevent whaling.

Manuel Barange, the director of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations fisheries and aquaculture department, tweeted saying he was “profoundly sad and lost for words” over the death of the “wonderful human being”.

– Irishman Michael Ryan was among the seven dead from the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), a humanitarian organisation distributing billions of rations every year to those in need.

The Rome-based aid worker and engineer known as Mick was formerly from Lahinch in Co Clare in Ireland’s west and was believed to be married with two children.

His projects have included creating safe ground for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and assessing the damage to rural roads in Nepal which were blocked by landslides.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar said: “Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa with the World Food Programme.”

– Polar tourism expert Sarah Auffret was making her way to Nairobi to discuss tackling plastic pollution in the seas at the UN assembly, according to her Norway-based employers Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO).

The University of Plymouth graduate held dual French-British citizenship, Norwegian media reported.

Raised in Brittany, the environmental agent was leading AECO’s efforts to cut back single-use plastics on Arctic expeditions and coordinating beach clean-ups.

“Words cannot describe the sorrow and despair we feel. We have lost a true friend and beloved colleague,” an AECO statement said.

– Joseph Waithaka, a 55-year-old who lived in Hull for a decade before moving back to his native Kenya, also died in the crash, his son told the Hull Daily Mail.

Ben Kuria, who lives in London, said his father had worked for the Probation Service, adding: “He helped so many people in Hull who had found themselves on the wrong side of the law.”

Mr Waithaka had dual Kenyan and British citizenship, the BBC reported.

– Anton Hrnko, an MP for the nationalist Slovak National Party, said he was “in deep grief” to announce that his wife Blanka, daughter Michala and son Martin were among the dead.

– Hospitality company Tamarind Group announced “with immense shock and grief” that its chief executive Jonathan Seex was among the fatalities.

– German national Anne-Katrin Feigl was named as a crash victim by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

She was en route to a training course in Nairobi as part of her role as a junior professional officer at the organisation.

– Paolo Dieci, a founder of an aid group that works with Unicef in Africa, was also reported as among the dead.

The International Committee for the Development of Peoples group said: “The world of international cooperation has lost one of its most brilliant advocates and Italian civil society has lost a precious point of reference.”

– Three members of humanitarian organisation Africa Tremila, based in Bergamo, Italy, were on board.

The aid group’s president Carlo Spini, his wife Gabriella Viggiani, and treasurer Matteo Ravasio were among the eight Italians killed.

– Sicilian regional culture ministry assessor Sebastiano Tusa, an underwater archaeologist, was also reportedly on the plane.

– Also among those killed from the WFP were Virginia Chimenti and Maria Pilar Buzzetti.

– The African Diaspora Youth Forum in Europe said co-chairman Karim Saafi had been a passenger on the flight and had been due to represent them at a meeting with the African Union in Nairobi.

“Karim’s smile, his charming and generous personality, eternal positivity, and his noble contribution to youth employment, diaspora engagement and Africa’s socio-economic development will never be forgotten,” a statement said.

– Professor Pius Adesamni was named as a victim by Benoit-Antoine Bacon, the president and vice-chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Describing him as a “towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship”, he said the entire university community was grieving his tragic death.

He revealed that “among many accolades, he received the Penguin Prize for African writing (non-fiction) in 2010”.

– Hussein Swaleh, the former secretary general of the Football Kenya Federation, was named as being among the dead by Sofapaka Football Club.

He was due to return home on the flight after working as the match commissioner in an African Champions League game in Egypt on Friday.

– Abiodun Oluremi Bashua – a retired envoy who served in Iran, Austria and Ivory Coast – was killed, Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry said.

– Austrian media reported that three doctors who were aged between 30 and 40 and worked at hospitals in Linz had died.

– Save the Children said its child protection in emergencies adviser Tamirat Mulu Demessie was among the dead.

He “worked tirelessly to ensure that vulnerable children are safe during humanitarian crises”, the charity said.

– Three of the Russians on board were tourists Yekaterina Polyakova, Alexander Polyakov and Sergei Vyalikov, the Russian Embassy in Ethiopia said. The first two were reportedly married.