Families pay tribute to Air France victims
By EMMA VANDORE – 32 minutes ago
PARIS (AP) — Three young Irish doctors, all close friends, enjoying a two-week vacation together in Brazil.
That's how their families want to remember Aisling Butler, 26, Jane Deasy, 27, and Eithne Walls, 29 — three of the 228 passengers who met with tragedy as Air France flight 447 ended up in the Atlantic Ocean.
The women boarded the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Sunday night after a reunion with a larger group of former students who graduated in 2007 from Trinity College medical school.
Aisling's father John Butler paid tribute to his daughter Tuesday from his home in Roscrea, County Tipperary.
"She was a truly wonderful, exciting girl," he told Irish reporters. "She never flunked an exam in her life — nailed every one of them — and took it all in her stride as well."
He said he initially thought Aisling was booked on Monday's flight and had to retrieve her itinerary from his deleted e-mails folder.
"When I opened it up, a nightmare opened up as well," he said.
Walls was working in Dublin's Eye and Ear Hospital. Before starting her medical studies she worked full-time as a dancer in the Riverdance troupe, and continued to perform part-time during her six years in Trinity medical school. She performed at Radio City Music Hall and in Germany, France, China and Dublin.
Julian Erskine, executive producer of Riverdance productions worldwide, described Walls as "bright and sparkling."
"She made an impact on anyone. When she wasn't dancing, she was studying. She was on a mission to be a doctor," he said.
Investigators were still looking into what brought the plane down in the Atlantic Ocean hours into its flight to Paris.
Among the 216 passengers were 61 French citizens, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans, nine Chinese and nine Italians. A lesser number of citizens from 27 other countries also were on the passenger list, including two Americans.
Ten salesmen from CGED, an electrical distributor, were on the plane with their spouses after winning a vacation to Brazil, Europe-1 radio reported.
French tiremaker Michelin lost three executives, including two senior Brazilian managers and Christine Pieraerts, a young French engineer. Spokeswoman Sophie Perrier said Michelin's staff was "very moved" by the tragedy.
Michelin's president for South America, Luiz Roberto Anastacio, 50, had been promoted May 4 and was traveling to France to meet fellow top executives. He had worked for Michelin for 27 years.
Brazilian information systems director, Antonio Gueiros, who had worked for Michelin for over 20 years, was coming to Paris for a computer seminar.
Michael Pieraerts praised his younger sister Christine, who was just short of her 29th birthday.
"Christine had, a short while ago, a stroke. She had recovered. We were very happy because was starting to take up her activities and a normal life again. Fate caught up with her and us," Michael told Le Parisien newspaper.
The five Britons on the plane included 61-year-old British engineer Arthur Coakley, from near Whitby, North Yorkshire. His wife of 34 years, Patricia, broke down in tears as she described her "fabulous husband," father to their three grown children.
"He worked so hard for his family, that's all he wanted, to retire. It's not going to happen, is it?" she told Britain's Press Association.
Coakley, a structural engineer for PDMS, an Aberdeen-based oil company, was helping with a survey in Brazil. He was booked onto an earlier flight, but was bumped onto the doomed jet after the first flight was full.
Patricia Coakley said her son Patrick raised the alarm, phoning to ask "What flight is Daddy on?"
She tried phoning her husband's mobile on Monday but gave up Tuesday.
"Yesterday I was really optimistic, today maybe more realistic," she said.
Prince Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, 26, a member of Brazil's now-defunct royal family and a descendent of Dom Pedro II, the nation's last emperor, was on the plane. So was sailor Zoran Markovic, 45, from the village of Kostelji in northwestern Croatia.
Air France said 11 of the 12 crew members were French but did not release their names.
The flight captain, 58, joined Air France in 1988 and had 11,000 hours of flight hours including 1,700 on aircraft of the same type as the A330-200 that disappeared.
The two co-pilots were 37 and 32 and had over 9,000 flight hours between them.
The head of the cabin crew was 49, his deputies were 54 and 46 years old. Of the six flight attendants aged between 24 and 44, one was Brazilian.
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