Brussels attacks: NYC siblings Alexander, Sascha Pinczowski confirmed dead, family says

A brother and sister who lived in New York City are among the fatalities in Tuesday’s deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels, the siblings’ family said Friday.

Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski, nationals of the Netherlands who lived on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, were in line at the Brussels airport when coordinated blasts exploded in the terminal and at a metro station elsewhere in the European capital. At least 31 people died and hundreds more were injured in both attacks.

At the time of the explosions, Alexander, 29, was on the telephone with his mother in Holland when the connection cut off, said James Cain, whose daughter, Cameron, was engaged to Alexander.

Then the family saw news about the attacks that had struck Brussels and feared the worst.

“We all watched it and prayed and hoped that they might have made it out,” Cain said from Brussels. In that city, where the bodies had just been identified, the families “had a chance to have a last visit with Alexander and Sascha,” he said.

Cain, a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark under President George W. Bush, described his would-be son-in-law as a man as adept at discussing European politics and history as he was at blacksmithing and crafting.

“The guy had an ability, a gift, with his hands, in addition to his mind,” Cain said, adding: “The guy had a photographic memory. He had an unbelievable ability to recall facts from history.”

The couple had met almost six years ago and were planning to start a business together, Cain said.

Sascha, 26, had interned for Shiraz Events, a New York City catering firm whose staff was “heartbroken” at the death of their former staffer, company president Shai Tertner said Friday.

“We remember her as a warm and lively presence during her too brief time with us,” Tertner said, lamenting how Sascha had a “great future” in the industry.

Cain said the recent college graduate adored her adopted city.

“She loved New York. She enjoyed the fashion and the lifestyle of New York and she was looking for career opportunities back in New York,” Cain said.

Dana Parisi, a classmate of Sascha’s at Marymount Manhattan College, described a young woman always looking to be kind to others.

Parisi, 23, a nanny who now lives in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, recalled how Sascha had gone out of her way to congratulate a classmate who had a fear of public speaking after the classmate successfully delivered a presentation.

Earlier this week, Parisi said she feared something had gone terribly wrong soon after she saw a Snapchat of Sascha’s describing a train trip to Brussels. Then Parisi watched news of the attacks and saw a Facebook plea from Pinczowski’s mother.

New York politicians also mourned the siblings’ deaths Friday.

“Two young siblings from our city were taken from us far too soon, and our hearts break for the family and friends of Sascha and Alexander,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement, adding: “Today we vow to continue standing up for freedom and democracy in honor of those we have lost.”

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called the Pinczowskis “two of our own.”

“Their lives were cut short by cowards who have chosen extremism and hate instead of peace and unity,” he said.

On Friday, Belgian authorities said that one of the bombers who blew himself up in the airport attacks had helped make at least two suicide vests used in the Paris-area attacks last year that killed 130 people, authorities said. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks “in revenge for Belgium’s role fighting militants in Syria and Iraq,” although the country had a limited role.