Kind, 'caring' researcher killed on Flight PS752 was visiting his wife for 1st anniversary

This is part of a series on the B.C. victims of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, which was downed near Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 8, 2020, killing all 176 people on board.

A postdoctoral fellow from the University of British Columbia (UBC) killed when a Ukrainian jetliner was shot down in Iran Jan. 8is being remembered as a kind, "puresoul" who wanted to spend his liferesearching better, more sustainable ways to clean wastewater for communities.

Mehran Abtahi was one of 176 people on board Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 when the plane was downed by an Iranian missile after taking off in Tehranon Jan. 8.The Canadian government has said 138 of the passengers on board were bound for Canada. The crash was a national tragedy.

"I wish he could see the whole nation is mourning for him; I want him to know that we all remember him and love him,"said Abtahi's brother, Arman.

"He wasn't just my brother. He was my best friend. He had a good soul; a pure person. He was always there for me, no matter what the situation was."

Many of those onboard the flight were academics returning to Canada after spending the winter holiday breakvisiting relatives inIran. Mehranwas one of them. He had been with his wifeto celebrate their first wedding anniversary in December.

The newlywedshad been in a long-distance marriage since October, when Mehran moved to Vancouver to join UBCas a post-doctoral research fellow. His wife stayed behind for her job as a pathologist and university faculty member.

In the caption of one Facebook photo, Mehran called herhis"everything."

"He fell in love," Arman said.

Arman said Mehran, 37, was an environmental civil engineer, who studied at Tehran University beforecompleting his PhDat the MESA+ Institute at theUniversity of Twentein the Netherlands in2018.

He was interested in wastewater treatment. His PhD thesis was centred onlowering the amount ofmicropollutants released from municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Anonline profile published to mark Mehran's graduation in 2018 said he publishedfindings from his university research in scientific journalsand had presented his work around the world in places such as Singapore, Vienna and San Francisco.

In a statement, UBC saidAbtahiwas a post-doctoral research fellow in the department of civil engineering.Postdoctoral fellows are researchers at UBC who are in training and want to study their particular area of research further, under the supervision of a faculty member.

His brother said he wanted to be a researcher and facultyprofessor at home in Iran, like his wife.

Arman, who moved to B.C. first for his own studies, said he had a hand in convincing his brother to choose Vancouver.

"I was always telling him how beautiful Canada is.... Here in Vancouver, we were back together," Arman said. "We spent a lot of good time here."

The brothers' mother also joined them in Vancouver. They travelled around the South Coast when they could, visiting places such asVictoria, Squamish and Whistler.

Arman was supposed to welcome Mehran at the airport when he landed back in Vancouver.

"I was going to YVR airport to pick him up. Instead, I went there to fly back to Iran for his funeral ceremony."

Iran has admittedit "mistakenly" shot down the jethours after Iran's forces fired missiles at Iraqi baseswhere U.S. troops were stationed. The attack was inretaliation for the U.S. killing a high-ranking Iranian military general.