Remembering the Flight 752 victims, five years after the plane was shot down in Iran

A memorial ceremony is set to take place today in the Toronto area to commemorate the anniversary of the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. A flower is placed next to the photos of Iman and Parinaz Ghaderpanah on a memorial wall at a vigil in Toronto on Saturday, January 8, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Wednesday marked the five-year anniversary of the Flight 752 crash that killed all 176 people on board, including two University of Waterloo students, two University of Guelph students, a Guelph woman and her nine-year-old daughter.

The plane for Ukraine International Airlines was shot down by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shortly after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Kohmeini Airport in 2020.

Among the 176 passengers were 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

Mari Foroutan and Mansour Esfahani were both PhD students at the University of Waterloo, while Ghanimat Azhdari was a PhD student in the department of geography, environment and geomatics at the University of Guelph. She was on her way back to Canada after visiting her family in Iran for the holidays.

Another passenger was Milad Ghasemi Ariani, who had been working towards his PhD in marketing and consumer studies at the University of Guelph.

Parisa Eghbalian and her nine-year-old daughter Reera Esmaeilion were also killed in the crash.

Eghbalian was a dentist at Guelph Dawson Dental.

A memorial to the victims of Flight 752 took place Wednesday in Richmond Hill.