Two Newcastle United fans travelling to the club's pre-season tour are among those on board a flight that crashed in Ukraine.
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John Alder, who I first met at a Newcastle match in Birmingham in 1973, and Liam Sweeney, 28, were on the passenger list for flight MH17, Malaysian Airlines confirmed.
The Boeing 777 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on Thursday with 298 people on board.
Mr Adler - known to all regular Newcastle fans for the last 40 years as "THE UNDERTAKER" - and Mr Sweeney were travelling to New Zealand to see the Magpies play.
I have have met up with John in some far out regions of Europe, from Serbia to the Ukraine; Sweden to Hungary; Croatia to Bulgaria; just about every country on the continent.
A quiet guy, and without doubt the NUMBER ONE NEWCASTLE UNITED FAN ever!
Sadly, he lived ... and died ... for the club.
I'm am writing this article with tears in my eyes.
If only the players wearing black and white shirts had the Geordie passion of that guy we would have won the title more times than Man Utd.
Flight MH17 came down between Krasni Luch, in Luhansk region, and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region of Donetsk - 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
The two sides in Ukraine's civil conflict have accused each other of shooting the jet down with a missile.
Malaysia Airlines said that of the passengers' nationalities identified so far, 154 were Dutch, 27 were Australian and 45 were Malaysian, including 15 crew.
As well as nine from the UK, there were passengers from Indonesia, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines and Canada, he added.
OLDHAM ATH 2 NEWCASTLE UTD 1
Siem de Jong's Toon career got off to a good start, scoring after only 14 minutes, but it was not enough to keep Newcastle United from slipping to a 2-1 defeat at Oldham Athletic in this pre-season fixture.
Second-half goals from Timothee Dieng and William Gros saw Oldham come from behind to ensure that Newcastle's pre-season preparations got under way in disappointing fashion.
New signings Jack Colback, Ayoze Perez and De Jong all featured.
Former Ajax skipper De Jong struck a free-kick into the Oldham wall, but the Netherlands international pounced on the rebound to lash home an effort from outside the area.
De Jong almost had a second when he came close to connecting with Rolando Aarons' delivery.
Perez was one of a host of substitutes introduced early in the second half, shortly before the hosts levelled.
Dieng headed home a David Mellor corner past Jak Alnwick.
Substitute Gros then got in on the act as his shot from the edge of the area slipped through Alnwick's grasp with 12 minutes remaining to hand the League One side victory.
Newcastle United starting XI: Alnwick; Anita, S.Taylor, Yanga-Mbiwa, Dummett; Gouffran, Abeid, Colback, Aarons; de Jong (c); Armstrong.
Subs: Woodman, Haïdara, Streete, Satka, Bigirimana, Sa.Ameobi, Vuckic, Perez.
NEWCASTLE UNITED PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES
15 July Oldham (A)
22 July Sydney FC (Dunedin – New Zealand)
26 July Wellington Phoenix (Wellington – New Zealand)
30 July Sheffield Wednesday (A)
2 August Schalke tournament v one of Malaga, West Ham or Schalke
3 August Schalke tournament v one of Malaga, West Ham or Schalke
5 August Huddersfield (A)
10 August Real Sociedad (SJP) 1.30pm
Newcastle United Fixtures
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Newcastle United v Manchester City
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Aston Villa v Newcastle United
Saturday August 30
Newcastle United v Crystal Palace
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Newcastle United v Hull City
Monday September 29
Stoke City v Newcastle United
Saturday October 4
Swansea City v Newcastle United
Saturday October 18
Newcastle United v Leicester City
Saturday October 25
Tottenham v Newcastle United
Saturday November 1
Newcastle United v Liverpool
Sunday November 9
West Brom v Newcastle United
Saturday November 22
Newcastle United v QPR
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West Ham United v Newcastle United
Tuesday December 2
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