Germanwings crash: A look at some of the victims of the plane crash

Germanwings: Tragic jet crash departing from Spain leaves 150 people dead

A Germanwings passenger jet carrying 150 people and heading to Germany crashed mystically after departing from Barcelona. The plane was later found in the French alps.

The victims of France’s deadliest plane crash in decades were from as far as Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, Australia and Morocco.

The 144 passengers of the Germanwings Airbus plane that crashed Tuesday in the French Alps on its way from Barcelona to Dusseldorf included two babies, schoolchildren going home from an exchange visit, a pair of acclaimed German opera singers and a member of an Argentinian rock band.

According to Germanwings and government officials, a total of 12 of the passengers hailed form the Americas: three Argentinians, two Colombians, two Mexicans, three Americans and two Venezuelans were among the victims of the plane crash.

Here is who they were:

Gabriela Lujan Maumus and Sebastian Greco, Argentina

Maumus was 28 and played in a rock band called Asalto al Parque Zoologico, or Assault on the Zoo Park, according to local website infobae.com. The group released an album a few months ago and had a concert scheduled for March 29 in Buenos Aires. Greco, also 28, was a financial analyst, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Argentinian newspaper Clarin reported that Manus and Greco were in Europe on vacation and were expected to return soon to Buenos Aires.

A spokesperson for the Society of Volunteer Firefighters of Pacheco, where Maumus’ father Mario was executive president, said the family was distraught.

“They spoke with France to see what day would be best to travel,” the spokesperson told Clarin.

Juan Armando Pomo, Argentina

Pomo, 51, was a businessman who for more than 20 years had lived in Asuncion, Paraguay. He was married with two teenage children, according to Infobae.

Luis Eduardo Medrano, Colombia

Medrano, a 36-year-old architect, had been vacationing in Europe. His family expected him to return to his native city of Popayan after working several years for an engineering firm in Equatorial Guinea. Medrano's father told local newspaper El Tiempo that shortly before takeoff he received a brief text message from his son: "Flying to Germany."

The University Foundation of Popoyan (FUP), who confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Medrano was on the flight, said he worked at Atland Global GE, the fifth largest engineering firms in the African country.

“FUP joins in prayer and extends the message of solidarity to his family and friends, who are going through this difficult time,” the foundation said in a statement on its website.

Maria del Pilar Tejada, Colombia

Tejada, 33, was an economist doing doctoral work at Bonn University, according to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. She was in Barcelona visiting her husband Carlos Andres Suarez, who confirmed her death to Caracol Radio.

Yvonne and Emily Selke, United States

Yvonne Selke of Nokesville, Virginia, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. in Washington and performed work under contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's secretive satellite mapping office, according to a person close to the family. She was travelling with her grown daughter Emily — a 2013 graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia who worked for Carr Workplaces of Alexandria, Va. The U.S. State Department said a third American citizen was also on board the flight and that the victim's family had been notified. It did not release the name out of respect for the family.

Three members of the same family, Spain

Three generations of one family — a schoolgirl, her mother and grandmother — were on the plane that crashed in the French Alps, according to a statement from the town hall in Sant Cugat del Valles, outside Barcelona.

The girl was a middle school student at Santa Isabel school in Sant Cugat, the statement said, without providing the family names.

"The students are very affected. The teachers are trying to help them any way they can," said a woman who answered the phone at the school. She refused to give her name or say more.

Asmae Ouahhoud el Allaoui and her husband, Spain

Ouahhoud el Allaoui, 23, got married on Saturday and was moving to Dusseldorf, according to the town hall of La Llagosta in northeastern Spain, where she was from. Her husband, an unnamed Moroccan, was also on the plane. The town hall said another man born there, Francisco Javier Gonalons, 42, also died in the crash.

Mireia Serrat, Spain

Serrat was export director for Spanish industrial manufacturer INOXPA, the Girona, Spain-based company said.

Maria Luisa Romanos, Spain

Romanos was the wife of INOXPA owner Candi Granes, the company said.

Manuel Rives, Spain

Rives worked for the Delphi company outside Barcelona, Spain's UGT union said. Rives was traveling with a Delphi human resources executive, the union said in a statement without giving the executive's name. Both were planning to attend a human resources conference.

Carles Milla, Spain

Milla, a married 37-year-old, was going to a food technology fair in Cologne on behalf of Milla Masanas, a small food machinery company in the town of Cornella de Terri, north of Barcelona, the company's managing director said.

Marina Bandres Lopez-Belio and her infant son Julian, Britain

Lopez-Belio had been attending an uncle's funeral in Jaca, a small Spanish town in the Pyrenees mountains, her husband Pawel Pracz said in a statement issued by the Foreign Office. Lopez-Belio, editor and colorist working in film post-production and who lived in Britain, was on the flight with her 7-month-old son Julian.

Unable to find a direct flight to Manchester, the chose to connect from Barcelona via Duesseldorf. "She bought the tickets at the last moment, and decided to return to Manchester quickly as she wanted to return to her daily routine as soon as possible," her husband said.

Sixteen high-school students and two teachers, Germany

The students and their teachers were returning from an exchange program in Spain. Their names have not been released.

The group was from Haltern, a rural town 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Duesseldorf, where it seemed everyone knew someone who had died.

The principal of Joseph Koenig High School, Ulrich Wessel, called the loss of his students and two teachers — one who had just married and another who was soon to be — a "tragedy that renders one speechless."

"I was asked yesterday how many students there are at the high school in Haltern, and I said 1,283 without thinking. Then had to say afterward, unfortunately, 16 fewer since yesterday," he said. "That's just terrible."

Maria Radner, her husband and their baby, Germany

Maria Radner, a 34-year-old contralto from Duesseldorf, her husband and infant son were among the victims, Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu said.

The Spanish opera house said she played the goddess Erda in Richard Wagner's "Siegfried" last weekend.

Oleg Bryjak, Germany

Bass baritone Oleg Bryjak, had performed along with Radner in the production of "Siegfried" at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu, the opera house said. Bryjak, 54, had sung the part of Alberich.

Bryjak was born in Ukraine of Kazakhstani origin and had moved to Germany in 1991 where he was the soloist at the Deutsche Opera am Rhein in Duesseldorf. Its director, Christoph Meyer, said that "we have lost a great performer and a great person in Oleg Bryjak."

Christina Scheppelmann, artistic director of the Liceu, said: "The mood is ominous, like it should be in any kind of workplace facing a tragedy like this one."

Paul Andrew Bramley, Britain

Bramley, 28, was studying hospitality and hotel management at Ceasar Ritz College in Lucerne. He had just finished his first year in college and was about to start an internship on April 1.

He had taken a few days of vacation with friends in Barcelona and was on his way back to Britain to meet his mother, who was traveling from her home in Majorca to see him.

"Paul was a kind, caring and loving son," his mother Carol Bramley said in a statement. "He was the best son, he was my world."

Martyn Matthews, Britain

Matthews, 50, was a senior quality manager from Wolverhampton. He is survived by his wife, Sharon, and his two children, the Foreign Office said. "We are devastated at the news of this tragic incident and request that we are allowed to deal with this terrible news without intrusion at this difficult time," the family said in a statement.

Carol and Greig Friday, Australia

Carol, a married mother of two, celebrated her 68th birthday on the eve of the crash, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said. She was vacationing with her son Greig, who was due to turn 30 next month and was to teach English in Europe. Bishop read out a statement from the family in which they said they were "in deep disbelief and crippled with sadness."

Junichi Sato, Japan

Sato, one of two Japanese victims, was based in Duesseldorf where he worked for Japanese machinery maker Seika Corp.'s local branch. The company said Sato had been in Barcelona, Spain, for a business trip.

"I'm speechless. My heart is totally broken," Sato's father Yukio said in an interview with Nippon Television Network Corp. from Hokkaido, their hometown in northern Japan. "I'm so proud of my son — he was working very hard as a businessman."

Eyal Baum, Israel

Baum, 39, lived in Barcelona with his wife, Baum's sister Liat told Army Radio. "He was amazing, with a winning smile. Whoever met him fell in love with him from the first moment," she said, in tears. "The thought of what he went through in those moments is very difficult."

Erbol Imankulov, Kazakhstan

Imankulov was director of a silicon plant in the eastern Kazakh city of Karaganda, according to state news agency Kazinform.

Milad Hojatoleslami and Hossein Javadi, Iran

Hojatoleslami worked for the semi-official Tasnim news agency and Javadi was a journalist at the Vatan-e-Emrouz daily, Iran's official IRNA news agency said, quoting the foreign ministry. The reporters were in Barcelona to cover last Sunday's soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid and planned to cover Iran's friendly games against Chile and Sweden in Austria and Stockholm, respectively, according to IRNA.

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.

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