American on Board Malaysia Jet Has Bay Area Ties

The American citizen Quinn Lucas Schansman, who was on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 when it was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday, has connections to the Bay Area.

Schansman, 19, had dual Dutch-U.S. citizenship, according to the State Department.

Schansman's father, Thomas Schansman, worked as an account executive for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, a company established by the Dutch embassy that had an office in San Mateo.

Quinn Schansman lived in the Bay Area as a kid when his father worked for the embassy. His grandfather Ronald Schansman told NBC Philadelphia Friday he is devastated by the news.

"You go through all the phases of mourning," he said. "At the moment it's just morning."

Thomas Schansman appears to have owned property in Menlo Park. His Twitter account shows his current location as Hilversum, Netherlands.

Information on what appears to be Quinn Schansman's Facebook profile shows he studied at the International Business School at Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Facebook photos of Schansman show him hanging out with friends and family.

He was on his way to Bali to meet his family for summer vacation, when the tragedy happened, relatives told NBC News.

"It didn't need to happen," his grandfather said.

A Facebook page belonging to a woman identified as Schansman's girlfriend shows photos of the two of them together. A number of people have left condolence messages on her page.

A friend of Schansman's who went to high school with him told NBC News he was born in New York but had lived in Holland most of his life.

"He was kind," the friend, Fabienne Schriek, said. "He stuck up for you and made you laugh when he saw there was something wrong."

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Riya Bhattacharjee, Gonzalo Rojas and Michelle Roberts contributed reporting.

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