SAN DIEGO _ A foreign student who has been studying at San Diego's Alliant International University was among the 176 people killed on Wednesday when a Ukrainian airliner crashed in Iran.
Alliant officials identified the victim as Sara Saadat, who was seeking a doctoral degree in clinical psychology at the Scripps Ranch campus.
"We extend our deepest sympathies to family and friends of Sara Saadat," Alliant said in a statement issued Friday. "(She) was a passenger on Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 that crashed in Iran.
"It appears that Sara was visiting family in Iran and was on her way back to San Diego to begin our spring 2020 term in our PsyD in Clinical Psychology program.
"We know that the entire Alliant community is affected when tragedy strikes any one of us, and we are here to provide support during these trying times."
Alliant's San Diego campus is a comparatively small school that serves about 1,200 graduate students and 150 undergraduates.
American military officials say that it appears that Iran accidentally attacked the Ukrainian airliner shortly after he took off from an airport in Tehran. Iranian officials call that claim a lie.
