MOSCOW, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - The Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 that crashed Thursday in Ukraine’s east carried six AIDS specialists, and not 100 as reported earlier, the International AIDS Society (IAS) President Francoise Barre-Sinoussi told Agence France Presse Saturday.
"The number that we have confirmed through our contacts with authorities in Australia, in Malaysia and Dutch authorities as well is six people. It may be a little bit more, but not the numbers that have been announced," she said.
Earlier reports said about 100 AIDS clinicians, researchers and activists heading to the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne were among the passengers on board the plane that crashed Thursday in Ukraine’s east. The conference was due to start on July 20.
The IAS reported Friday that its former President Joep Lange is among the victims. Glenn Thomas, a World Health Organization’s media relations coordinator, is also among the dead.
The Malaysia Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed Thursday near the town of Torez in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region. The cause of the accident has not been determined so far.
Kiev blamed independence supporters in the turbulent Donetsk Region for downing the passenger plane with a surface-to-air missile. The leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic said local militia did not have the required technologies to shoot as high at 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in the air.
Rescuers have revealed two black boxes from the plane. Ukraine, Malaysia Airlines and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are already investigating the accident at the site. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), Interpol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are also planning to join the investigation.
