Dubai: Anna Sergeeva had been living in Dubai for just four months before she made a last-minute booking to visit Rostov-on-Don.
The 25-year-old Ukrainian, originally from the city of Kharkiv, surprised her colleagues at the Enigma Beauty Salon on Al Wasl Road in Dubai when she decided to head to the Russian city for a holiday.
Her co-worker, Yana Rudi, also Ukrainian, dropped her at Dubai Airport on Friday night, and before flight FZ981 took off to Rostov-on-Don, Sergeeva took a selfie of herself on-board.
That picture is one of the few things that survived the devastating crash of the Boeing 737-800, which was destroyed on impact near Rostov airport in the early hours of Saturday, after circling for hours in poor weather.
In focus: Flydubai plane crash
Another photo of Sergeeva was displayed in Dubai on Sunday: A black-and-white portrait of the young manicurist, who had started at Enigma just three months prior.
Her colleagues placed it in the salon, alongside a bunch of white lilies and a candle. On the portrait is written “We remember, love, mourn. May the memory of your live forever:
“We offer this day as condolence day for our colleague and friend Hanna Serhieieva. We give our heartfelt sorrows and sympathy to her friends and family here in Dubai and in Russia. May her spirit live on forever in our hearts,” the salon wrote on its Facebook page.
“She was a good, decent girl, giving help to everyone,” Rudi, told Gulf News. “We are shocked, troubled, people are crying, everyone who knew her is coming to the salon with flowers.”
The 24-year-old, speaking softly, said Sergeeva “booked the flight suddenly, without planning”.
“She was going for a vacation, to see her friends there. She had worked in Rostov for five years before coming to Dubai.”
Sergeeva’s mother and 11-year-old brother still live in Kharkiv; Rudi said the victim’s mother was travelling to Rostov for blood tests to identify her daughter’s remains.
On Sergeeva’s selfie, a friend, Lera Polyakova, wrote of her friend, “very energetic, purposeful ... when she flew to Dubai to live, it seemed that it was her city, energy … This photo was taken exactly in the plane. No one believes, and we do not believe.”
