One of the victims on board the fateful MH17 flight may be one of the quietest students in his class, but it was his break dance performance during his school’s year-end concert that stood out in his former teacher’s memory.

Speaking to Astro AWANI via Google Hangout, former teacher at the QSI International School of Atyrau, Kazakhstan Nate Fleming had only kind words for his former student Mohd Afruz Tambi Jiee, 13.

"I was his homeroom teacher but I also taught music. In our spring concert, we had a song that his class sang. It was very upbeat. He and a couple of the other Malaysian kids did a little break dance in the middle of it.

"It was very surprising because these kids were quiet but they were willing to get out and have a lot of fun in front of an audience. I don’t remember how good it was but I remember they had a lot of fun doing it. That was one of my last memory of him,” he said.

Fleming taught Afruz when he enrolled in the school in the spring of 2012 and said Afruz was a quiet but a very bright child.

"He wasn’t scared to be there (school) as he would smile a lot. He was very friendly. He seemed to enjoy school and enjoy learning,” he added.

Check out the full interview with Fleming:


In the air crash, Mohd Afruz together with his parents and all the three other siblings died in the MAS MH17 tragedy. The MH17 was flying from Amsterdam, Holland to Kuala Lumpur last Thursday.

His father, Tambi Jiee, 49, from Kampung Gobielt, Sarawak together with his mother, Ariza Ghazalee, 47, and other siblings — Mohd Afif, 19, Mohd Afzal, 17, Marsha Azmeena, 15, were returning from Kazakhstan.