Germanwings Crash Victims: Students, Singers Were on Doomed Airbus - NBCNews.com

There were 144 passengers and six flight crew aboard Germanwings Flight 4U9525, which crashed into the French Alps on Tuesday. Here is a look at some of the lives lost in the tragedy.

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Australian nurse Carol Friday, 68, was traveling with her son Greig, 29, an engineer who had planned to move to France to teach English.

The pair were "extraordinary and exceptional people," their family said Wednesday in a statement issued through Australia's foreign ministry. "Our family is in deep disbelief and crippled with sadness."

"They will forever be with us in our hearts, memories and dreams," the statement added.

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Sixteen German high school students from the town of Haltern were on the plane with their teachers, returning from an exchange trip to Spain.

Leonie Kustermeier's cousin, 16-year-old Rabea Scheidler, was one of them.

"I'm really shocked and I can't believe it right now," she told NBC News outside of a growing memorial at the Joseph-Konig high school in Haltern. "I still think she will come to school tomorrow."

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German opera singers Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner had just performed in a production of Wagner's Siegfried at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Tanja Brill, spokeswoman for Dusseldorf's opera house, told NBC News that the ensemble was "absolutely depressed" at the death of Oleg Bryjak, who had been with the organization for 20 years.

"Our sincere condolences to family and friends of all victims," Barcelona's Gran Teatre said in a statement.

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Marina Bandres, a native of the small Spanish town of Jaca, and her baby boy also were on the plane, Jaca Mayor Victor Barrio told the AP. Bandres had been attending a funeral in Jaca for a relative, Barrio said.

IN-DEPTH

• Germanwings Says Some Crew Are Refusing to Fly After Alps Crash


• First Photos Emerge of Crash Site in French Alps


• Plane in Alps Crash Has Strong Safety Record

- Carlo Angerer, Alastair Jamieson and Katy Tur

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

First published March 25 2015, 3:43 AM

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