TORONTONIAN MOTHER AND SON AMONG JET PASSENGERS KILLED
Linda Nguyen and Becky Rynor

Winnipeg Free Press
ntonian-mother-and-son-among-jet-passengers-killed -436j-51015212.html
July 17 2009
Canada

A Toronto piano teacher and her three-year-old son were among the 168
passengers who died aboard an Iranian jet that crashed on its way to
Armenia, the woman’s husband said Thursday.

Vahik Khachik, 54, said he had taken his wife, 35-year-old Nana
Antashyam and their only son, three-year-old Edward to the Tehran
airport Wednesday morning

"We came back to my sister’s home in Tehran and we came after that
and we saw the news on TV," he said.

"I screamed when I heard that. I screamed very loud. And all my
sisters and my brothers, they jumped and they realized what happened."

Khachik said his wife was travelling to Armenia to visit her mother
who had not been well. She had been planning on staying there until
Aug. 11.

"Her mother had not been feeling that great and she had not seen her
for a long time, she was living nearly five years in Canada and had
not visited her parents," he said.

Khachik said he had attended a family wedding with his wife in Tehran
and had their son baptized just before the two left for Armenia.

"On the 28th of this month he would have turned four years old. He
was such a brilliant little boy. He would have been an asset to the
whole world. A very, very smart, intelligent boy," he said.

"My wife, was an excellent wife, I was very happy with her. She was
an excellent mother. She was very, very careful."

The two had been married for about six years.

A close family friend, Leonard Rideout who rents a basement apartment
from the couple, said he spoke to Khachik late Wednesday night who
confirmed the news about his wife and son.

"I talked to him on the phone and he said, ‘I lost my wife and boy. I
don’t know what I’m going to do,’" said Rideout who has lived with
the young family for the last two years in an east Toronto home.

"He told me that he drove Nana to the airport in Tehran and when he
left the airport, 15 minutes later he heard about the plane crash,"
said Rideout.

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday confirmed that two
Canadians were in the Iranian jet crash. Both were travelling on
their Iranian passports.

The jet crashed on Wednesday, minutes after takeoff.

Officials on Thursday said a technical problem is believed to have
caused the Iranian airliner to burst into flames and plunge into
farmland.