The final Instagram post of a flight attendant who died in the Ukrainian plane crash is a chilling reminder of the innocence lost.
A Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 with 176 people on board crashed in Iran yesterday morning, January 8, just minutes after taking off from Tehran’s airport, killing all on-board.
Kiev is currently investigating the flight, originally destined for the capital, over whether Iran accidentally shot down the civilian airline with a Russian-made missile.
Ukrainian flight attendant Valeriia Ovcharuk – born in the city Luhansk in eastern Ukraine’s unrecognised state of Luhansk People’s Republic – had been living in the Kiev for the past few years. As a fan of her job and the many, illustrious travel opportunities it provided, she’d regularly share her excitement on social media.
Valeriia sent her final social media post in Bangkok, Thailand, declaring her love for the job in sentimental fashion.
Valeriia wrote: ‘Work, I love you’, mimicking the title of the 2008 American comedy-drama anthology film New York, I Love You. Valeriia adored New York, once stating that she loved it there even when the city looked grey and gloomy.
In the last couple of months, she spent a lot of time in North America visiting Toronto and New York City.
Following the crash, followers and other netizens expressed their condolences to her family on social media, mentioning how beautiful and positive she was. Based on her social media profile, she was in a relationship with Ukrainian pilot Ivan Michkovskyi.
Oleksiy Danylov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council, said today that Kiev was currently in negotiations with Iran to allow experts access to the area of south-west of Tehran where the plane crashed.
Danylov wrote, as per the Independent:
We will use everything we learned investigating the attack on the MH17 Boeing to establish the truth in the case of the crash of the Ukrainian plane in Tehran. A rocket strike, possibly a Tor missile system, is among the main working theories, since there is information on the internet about elements of a missile being found near the site of the crash.
Interestingly, the plane fell not long after Tehran launched missile strikes against US forces in Iraq – following the Trump-mandated killing of Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.