President Barack Obama has identified Quinn Lucas Schansman as the only American citizen on board the ill-fated Malaysia American Flight MH17.
Obama gave a press conference at the White House about the Ukraine situation at 12:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, July 18, and he commented about the downed Malaysian flight.
The President noted that there was one American citizen, Quinn Lucas Schansman, on board the plane, and he could possibly have been a dual citizen.
“At this point, the individual that I mentioned in the sole person that we can definitively say is a U.S. or dual citizen,” the President said.
“At this point, having worked through the list, this is our best assessment of the number of Americans that were killed.”
According to his Facebook page, Schansman studied at the International Business School at Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
Schansman also has an Instagram account.
The Daily Mail claims that Schansman has dual U.S. and Dutch citizenship.
MH17 was believed to be shot down pro-Russian separatists by a surface-to-air missile over Ukraine on Thursday, July 17.
All 298 people on board the plane perished in the crash. Some of the passengers have been identified.
The President called the incident a “global tragedy,” and called for the Russian separatists and Ukrainians to hold a ceasefire.
ABC news reports that State Department officials have stated that no US passports were used to check in for flight MH17, although passengers with dual citizenships have not been ruled out.
During the press conference, Obama also honored the “nearly 100” scientists, researchers and health workers on MH17 who were bound for an AIDS conference in Australia.
Obama also commented on the violence and unrest in eastern Ukraine, and added that the United States would work to de-escalate the conflict.
“Russia, these separatists, and Ukraine, all have the capacity to put an end to the fighting,” Obama said.
“Meanwhile, the United States is going to continue to lead efforts within the world community to de-escalate the situation, to stand up for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and to support the people of Ukraine as the courageously work to strengthen their democracy and their own decisions about how to move forward.”
Obama also said the US is confident that the missile that brought down MH17 “came from areas controlled by separatists,” and that “a group of separatists cannot shoot down.. fighter jets without sophisticated equipment.. And that is coming from Russia.”
“This will be a wake up call for Europe and the world that there are consequences for escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine,” the President added.
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