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Newlywed London couple killed in Madrid jet fireball
Tom Worden in Madrid22 Aug 2008
A newlywed London couple were among the 153 people killed in the Madrid air crash.
Ronaldo Gomes Silva, 25, and Yanina Celisdibowsky married in Brazil last month and planned to start a family in Britain. They were flying to the Canary Islands so that Brazilian office worker Ronaldo could meet his Spanish in-laws for the first time.
The couple met in London and had lived there since 2004. Ronaldo's father Juliao Alves da Silva said: "I am destroyed. I have lost my son and a daughter-in-law."
Ronaldo's brother Rodinaldo, 27, who also lives in London, flew to Madrid to arrange for his body to be returned to Brazil. "Ronaldo was more than a brother, I was brother and father to him," he said.
"He came with me wherever I went. A year after I went to London, he went too.
"Ronaldo loved Yanina so much. From the day they met he said 'I love her and I want to be with her.'"
He added: "I have to wait for the results of the DNA tests and dental records in order to take the body to Brazil."
The couple married in Sao Paulo on 3 July and went on honeymoon in Brazil and Spain. Another brother, Rogerio Gomes Silva, said: "My parents are very depressed. My mother has taken it very badly."
Sister Rosana Gomes Silva said: "I saw the scenes of the accident on television but I didn't know my brother was on that plane. It was my brother's father-in-law who contacted some friends in Sao Paulo, to tell us that they had both died."
Only 19 people survived Wednesday's accident. They include three children aged six, eight and 11.
Entire families were wiped out and the dead include 14 foreigners from nine countries including Germany, France and Bulgaria. But more than half were from the Canary Islands, including 13 from the town of San Bartolome de Tirajana.
One survivor today claimed the captain Antonio Garcia Luna had warned passengers: "A light has come on, but I don't know what it means." Ligia Palomino, from Colombia, described how the plane shook as it took off and she feared it would not make it off the ground. Investigators are still probing the cause of the disaster but sources said human error has been ruled out.
Many of the victims' bodies were burned beyond recognition in the blaze. About 50 have been identified but many will need DNA testing.
Reader views (1)
Very, very sad, my heart goes out to the relatives of the deceased. May their souls rest in peace.
- Le-Roy Edwards -Www.Acets.Org, Nottingham England, 25/08/2008 22:52
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