LAST UPDATE | 30 Jan
US AND RUSSIAN figure skaters were among the passengers onboard a passenger plane that collided with a military helicopter in Washington this morning.
US Figure Skating, the national governing body for the sport of figure skating, has confirmed that several members of its skating community were on board the American Airlines flight.
“These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas,” said US Figure Skating in a statement.
.@jamesmatthewsky: 'Who was on the flight that you know?'
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 30, 2025
Family friend of Washington DC plane crash victims, Pat replies: 'My daughter's best friend and her mum... She was on an athletic trip.'
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“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts. We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
“Figure skating is more than a sport, it’s a close-knit family and we stand together,” the International Skating Union (ISU) added.
Meanwhile, Russia’s TASS news agency is reporting that Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were also on board the passenger plane.
The Kremlin also confirmed that Russian citizens were on board the plane, saying it had seen “sad reports” the champion skaters were among them.
Shishkova, 52, and Naumov, 55, competed at six world championships between 1991 to 1996, winning gold, silver and bronze medals.
The peak of their career was winning the 1994 pairs title at the world championships in Chiba, Japan.
One of my favorite pairs programs in my early days of figure skating fandom - Evgenia Shishkova/Vadim Naumov were playful in their musicality, original in their lifts, and phenomenal in their line. They won 1994 Worlds with this fun free skate pic.twitter.com/FU4f2d8y3n
— Jackie Wong (@rockerskating) March 8, 2023
The couple, who married in 1995, ended their careers after failing to qualify for the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998.
After becoming professionals, they moved to the United States to become coaches, first in Connecticut then in Boston since 2017.
Inna Volyanskaya, a former skater who competed for the Soviet Union, was also reported to have been on board, TASS said. She was a coach at the Washington figure skating club, the Russian news agency reported.
Both the plane and the helicopter are lying in the river, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told a press briefing.
Authorities have recovered at least 19 bodies, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation, CBS reported.
American Airlines, whose subsidiary operated the flight, said “there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft.”
A US Army official said the helicopter involved was a Black Hawk model carrying three soldiers – their status currently unknown.
They had been on a “training flight,” a separate military spokesperson said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the mid-air collision occurred around 9pm local time when a regional jet that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, crashed into the helicopter while on approach to an airport runway.
Additional reporting by Andrew Walsh
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