VELIKY NOVGOROD, Russia (AP) – The first victim of Saturday’s plane crash over Egypt was laid to rest on Thursday following a funeral service in a medieval church in city in northern Russia.
Russia’s Airbus 321-200 crashed over the Sinai Peninsula en route from the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, killing all 224 on board. An overwhelming majority of the passengers were Russians flying home from their Red Sea vacation.
Grief has struck St. Petersburg and its suburbs as mourners continue to bring flowers, candles and paper planes to the city’s imperial-era square and the airport where the Metrojet flight had been due to land.
In the ancient city of Veliky Novgorod, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of St. Petersburg, family and friends on Thursday morning said their goodbyes to Nina Lushchenko, the first victim of the crash to be laid to rest. A church service was held in a whitewashed 16th-century church, overlooking the Volkhov River.
Lushchenko, 60, who worked in a school canteen all her life, was remembered as a good mother and grandmother. Her daughter told the Russian LifeNews television channel earlier this week that Lushchenko had considered taking her granddaughter with her on vacation but later decided against it.