EgyptAir Victims: Canadian Remembered for Kind Heart

Amid investigation of EgyptAir flight 804 crash, a Canadian passenger was remembered for "kind heart."

Marwa Hamdy was the first Canadian passenger identified aboard EgyptAir flight 840. Her family and closest friends remembered her as a devoted mother and a kind-hearted person.

Haleh Banani, a friend whose children once attended the same school as Hamdy, said she moved to Egypt and enrolled at the American University in Cairo. After she graduated, she married an IBM employee and has lived in Egypt for the last two decades. Banani and Hamdy had became close friend as they bonded over the joys and challenges of parenthood.

"She was definitely a kind-hearted person, a spiritual person, dedicated to helping others," Banani said in a report by The Globe and Mail.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion confirmed there were two Canadians on board, and Medhat Tanious was the second Canadian passenger identified. Later on, Tanious's daughter and niece confirmed to CBC that he was on the plane.

Egypt, Greece, France, the United States and other nations offered help to search the debris of the plane, in hope to find clues, and the bodies of the victims. Each country used ship and planes in searching the Mediterranean Sea.

Tanious flew to Paris for a surprise family reunion, and he was the father of three adult daughters. 

"It's a hard time for us to believe what happened but we are here in church comforted and consoled by the Holy Spirit," Mr. Tanious' family said in a statement read by a priest during the evening service, in a follow up report by The Globe And Mail.

Flight 840 crashed and plunged into the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday en route to Cairo from Paris. After conflicting reports about the reason why the plane crashed, the forensics official confirmed that the explosion had caused the downing of the plane after examining the remains of the passengers. The forensic official saw burn marks on the body parts of the victims.

"The logical explanation is that an explosion brought it down," the official told Associated Press.