‘They killed many beautiful souls’ — UWindsor remembers Flight 752

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Five years after five bright members of the University of Windsor community died in a tragic plane crash, Mahsa Rahimi is keeping their memories alive.

The biomedical science PhD student lost her best friend, Samira Bashiri, on Jan. 8, 2020, when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital Tehran. The crash killed all 176 people aboard the civilian passenger jet.

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“They killed many beautiful, bright souls, many loved ones, many innocent people … with all of their unfilled dreams left,” Rahimi told the Star at a local memorial event Wednesday.

Samira was my best friend. I will always keep her close to my heart. I try my best to make their memory alive so everyone knows, the world knows, about what happened to them.”

Coinciding with similar commemorative events held across Canada, Rahimi organized a memorial at the university for the lives lost that day.

Those killed from the University of Windsor community were civil engineering doctoral student Pedram Jadidi; biology research assistant Samira Bashiri and her spouse Hamidreza Setareh Kokab, a mechanical engineering PhD candidate; and civil engineering doctoral student Zahra Naghibi and her spouse Mohammad Abbaspour Ghadi.

The five individuals were on a journey back to Canada after visiting loved ones in Iran over the holiday break.

This week’s memorial saw dozens gather inside the CAW Student Centre and observe a musical tribute and slideshow with photos of the deceased. Attendees signed their names in memorial books set up on a table in the centre of the room alongside large photos of the five UWindsor community members lost.

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memorial
University of Windsor president Robert Gordon signs a commemorative booklet during a ceremony at the CAW Student Centre on Wednesday, on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 8, 2020, shooting down of Flight 752 by Iranian military. All 176 aboard were killed, including five UWindsor community members. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom — the members of the International Coordination and Response Group — “continue to call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to take full responsibility for its actions, including by making reparation for the harm caused by the downing,” the Government of Canada said in a news release issued on Wednesday.

“I am so angry,” Rahimi said. “Nobody responds to the family after five years.

“Why does nobody say something, (give) an explanation? I am angry. I just want justice for them.”

In November 2020, the university, in partnership with the City of Windsor, unveiled a memorial site on the riverfront with commemorative trees, benches, and plaques that bear the names of the five locals lost.

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Among the 176 killed aboard the passenger flight, 55 were Canadian citizens. Another 30 were permanent residents of Canada, and 53 were travellers bound for Canada.

After initially denying any responsibility, Iranian authorities eventually admitted its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had targeted the commercial flight after mistakenly identifying the large jet as an American cruise missile during a time of heightened tension in the Persian Gulf.

Two scholarships were created to honour the legacy of the students: the Iranian Student Memorial Scholarship and the Ontario Remembrance Scholarship.

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