# 8848
We are still learning about the roughly 300 passengers & crew who were killed yesterday when Malaysian Flight MH17 was apparently shot down over Ukraine, and the scope of that tragedy will likely expand today and tomorrow.
Overnight there have been reports indicating that a number of researchers – en route to Melbourne Australia for the AIDS Conference – were aboard that flight (see Crofsblog MH17: A statement of condolence from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS).
Although the exact number isn’t clear, the http://www.theaustralian.com.au is now carrying a report saying that more than 100 AIDS researchers & activists were aboard that flight (see Delegates to Melbourne AIDS summit on doomed flight MH17).
This morning the World Health Organization also announced the sad news that Glenn Thomas, a member of Gregory Hartl’s communications team, was lost in that crash. This emailed statement from the WHO:
It is with deep sadness that we have to inform you that WHO lost one of our colleagues on the Malaysian Airlines crash yesterday. Glenn Thomas from the Department of Communications was travelling to the International AIDS Conference in Australia. His twin sister says he died doing what he loved.
Glenn had been with WHO for more than a decade. He came here from the BBC and spent many years providing communications support to the TB Department. Since 2012 he had been working on the media team in DCO, regularly hosting press conferences and working with you at the Palais and with other journalists to promote the work of WHO. Glenn will be remembered for his ready laugh and his passion for public health.
He will be greatly missed by those who had the opportunity to know him and work with him. He leaves behind his partner Claudio and his twin sister, Tracey.
Our deepest condolences go to his family, friends and colleagues at this time.
Media contact:
Gregory Härtl
Coordinator, News, Social Media and Monitoring
