Victims of Germanwings plane crash

Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 that crashed with no survivors in the French Alps on Tuesday was carrying 144 passengers and six crew from 18 countries, according to the budget airline’s parent company Lufthansa.

Most of those on board the flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf were Spanish or German but others came from as far afield as Australia and Colombia.

Authorities are in the process of confirming the nationalities of the victims, a task complicated by the fact that a number of travellers had dual nationality, which might explain discrepancies in some of the figures.

Here is what is known of the victims:

Germany

The German government said Thursday 75 Germans were on board, up from an earlier estimate from Germanwings of at least 72.

The German victims include 16 teenage school pupils and their two female teachers from Haltern, a town north of Duesseldorf.

The group had been on a week-long exchange trip near Barcelona.

Two star opera singers who had just performed in Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried” in Barcelona were also among the passengers.

German contralto Maria Radner, 33, was killed along with her baby and husband. Kazakh-German opera singer Oleg Bryjak, 54, also died.

Spain

Spain had 50 nationals on the flight, junior security minister Francisco Martinez said Thursday, revising an earlier figure of 51 that included a longtime Spanish resident who did not have citizenship.

Reports named one Spanish victim as Marina Bandres Lopez-Belio, 37, and her baby, a British national. Originally from the Spanish Pyrenees but living in Britain, Lopez-Belio had been attending a relative’s funeral in Spain.

Other victims included a young married couple as well as numerous Catalan business figures, including four members of the same family.

Other EU countries

At least three British nationals died, according to British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond. A 50-year-old father of two, a hotel management student returning from a holiday and the British infant son of Spanish victim Marina Bandres Lopez-Belio were confirmed dead by British officials.

The deaths of one Belgian, one Dutch woman and one Dane have also been confirmed by the airline and local authorities.

United States

Three Americans lost their lives in the crash, the State Department said. The two female victims were mother and daughter Yvonne and Emily Selke. The third victim was identified as Robert Oliver.

South America

Two Argentines were on board, according to Germanwings. A third, who lived in Paraguay, also died, according to his brother.

Two Mexicans were also on board, the government said.

Colombians Maria del Pilar Tejada and Luis Eduardo Medrano died, their country’s foreign ministry said.

Two Venezuelans were killed, according to Germanwings.

A Chilean woman who was living in Venezuela was also among the dead, Chile’s ambassador to France said.

Australia

Two Australians, 68-year-old Carol Friday and her son Greig, 29, were on board the flight, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

Their family said in a statement that the pair were holidaying in Europe before the start of Greig Friday’s stint in France as an English teacher.

Japan

The Japanese foreign ministry said two citizens were on the passenger list — Satoshi Nagata and Junichi Sato. Both men lived in Duesseldorf. “It is very likely that they were on board,” a ministry official told AFP in Tokyo.

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry confirmed that three of its citizens — Erbol and Adil Imankulov and Aizhan Isengaliyeva — were among the dead.

The ministry said it was trying to confirm whether a fourth passenger held Kazakh citizenship.

North Africa/Middle East

A newly married Moroccan couple headed for a new life in Germany were on the doomed plane, a relative said.

Two Iranians and one Israeli were also on the flight, according to Germanwings.

The ‘lucky ones’

A Swedish third division football team booked on the flight changed their reservation at the last minute after deciding to change their route home.

Upon arrival at Barcelona airport, the Dalkurd FF team from central Sweden decided the stopover in Duesseldorf would be too long and booked themselves on three other flights flying via Zurich and Munich.

“We were supposed to be on that plane,” sporting director Adil Kizil said.