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ONE was a guitar-playing nuclear physicist. Another two were respected Aids experts. And a third was a grain executive on his way to a business meeting.
They sat alongside a Saudi prince, a newlywed couple and a doctor on her way to help her sister deliver her first baby.
Two families of five people were on their way across the Atlantic for long-awaited reunions with loved ones.
It was an aircraft full of strangers who are now forever linked by tragedy.
Today, friends and relatives of the 229 victims on board Swissair flight SR111 from New York to Geneva told heartbreaking tales of the people they have lost.
The shock after the crash gave way to an outpouring of grief, as families and friends mourned the loss of so many lives off the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada.
The dead came from 18 countries - including six from Britain.
Devastated
Former United Nations employees Joyce Ratnavale, 74, and her Sri Lankan born husband Victor, 77, were among the dead.
Today, Mrs Ratnavale's sister-in-law, Monica, said: "They had so many friends in Geneva who, like me, will be devastated."
Mr Ratnavale had a successful heart by-pass as well as colon surgery during the couple's stay in America, she said.
They had been visiting their daughter, Chantal, a doctor, and her family in Virginia and were returning to Geneva where they had made their home.
She added: "It had all gone very well. They were looking forward to getting home to Geneva where they were very well liked."
The couple had met in the Swiss city after answering advertisements for UN staff after the War. They also had a son, Myron, who lives in Geneva, and another daughter,...