PARIS -- Three young Irish doctors, all close friends, enjoying a two-week vacation together in Brazil.
That's how their families want to remember Aisling Butler, 26, Jane Deasy, 27, and Eithne Walls, 29 _ three of the 228 passengers who met with tragedy as Air France Flight 447 ended up in the Atlantic Ocean.
The women boarded the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Sunday night after a reunion with a larger group of former students who graduated in 2007 from Trinity College medical school.
Aisling's father John Butler paid tribute to his daughter Tuesday from his home in Roscrea, County Tipperary.
"She was a truly wonderful, exciting girl," he told Irish reporters. "She never flunked an exam in her life _ nailed every one of them _ and took it all in her stride as well."
He initially thought Aisling was booked on Monday's flight and had to retrieve her itinerary from his deleted e-mails to check.
"When I opened it up, a nightmare opened up as well," he said.
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