Two New York City siblings are among the dead in the attacks in Brussels, their family said Friday.
Alexander and Sascha Pinczowski, Dutch nationals who lived in the U.S., were headed home to the states when a bomb exploded at the airport Tuesday. Alexander, 29, was on the phone with his mother in Holland when the line went dead, said James Cain, whose daughter Cameron was engaged to Alexander.
"We received confirmation this morning from Belgian authorities and the Dutch embassy of the positive identification of the remains of Alexander and Sascha from the terrorist bombing at the Brussels Airport," Cain said on behalf of the Pinczowski family. "We are grateful to have closure on this tragic situation, and are thankful for the thoughts and prayers from all. The family is in the process of making arrangements."
Alexander Pinczowski had traveled to Holland to work on a craft-related business that he and Cameron were going to start together, Cain said.
The couple met six years ago while taking summer courses in Durham, North Carolina. They hadn't set a wedding date but had planned to marry within the year, Cain said.
He called Alexander "intimidatingly smart, a brilliant young man."
Sascha Pinczowski, 26, was a 2015 graduate of Marymount Manhattan College in New York with a degree in business. She spent last summer as an intern at a catering company, Shiraz Events.
Shiraz Events President Shai Tertner called her "a bright, hardworking young woman, with a great career ahead of her."
Both siblings had hoped to obtain U.S. citizenship one day, said Cain, a retired ambassador to Denmark.
Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that New York lost "two of our own" in the attacks.
"In memory of the Pinczowki siblings, we will continue to stand up to terror at every turn," he said.
The bombings in Brussels at the airport and in the subway killed 31 people and injured nearly 300.
