TRU mum on reports student may have been on doomed Malaysian Airlines plane

NEWS — Thompson Rivers University is being swamped with calls today about a possible connection to the crash of a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet on the Russia-Ukraine border, but it’s not making any comment.

Christopher Seguin, vice president advancement for the university, said TRU is bound by privacy rules not to reveal whether someone is a student there.

News agencies have reported references to identification recovered from the wreckage of the aircraft that belongs to an Indonesian student at “Thompson University.”

“We’ve been getting calls from every major news outlet in the world,” Seguin said, but the answer is the same to all of them — “No comment.”

“Privacy legislation dictates that we can’t say if a student is enrolled.”

Seguin said the university has students from 86 countries.

He said if concerned parents of students call TRU World to check on their sons and daughters the university will do its best to “do what we can within our guidelines” but “with so little information it’s so important not to panic.”

“This is all hearsay and it is all garbled,” Seguin said of the reports on the possibility of a passenger being a TRU student. “It’s all fourth hand.”

He said he has not heard of a Thompson University elsewhere.

An airline official has confirmed that at least one Canadian was among the 295 people on board the Boeing 777 airliner.

The Ukrainian government has blamed pro-Russian rebels for shooting down the passenger jet, which was enroute from Amsterdam to Kuala Lampur, but the rebels have denied it.

Several news agencies have reported that a surface-to-air missile struck the plane.

Parents or students with concerns about the safety or wellbeing of any student enrolled at TRU are being advised to contact the Office of Judicial and Student Affairs at 25-574-5255.

A statement released on the TRU website said, “We wish to express deep concern and sympathy for all affected by this tragic development.”