14 linked to figure skating were on crashed plane

Fourteen members of the figure skating community were passengers on an American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, according to Skating Club of Boston executive director Doug Zeghibe.

Zeghibe said six members or associates of the Skating Club of Boston were killed in the crash, including teenage skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane and their mothers.

Also killed were Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships and competed twice in the Olympics. They were listed as coaching at the Boston club.

"Skating is a very close and tight-knit community. These kids and their parents, they're here at our facility in Norwood, six, sometimes seven days a week. It's a close, tight bond," Zeghibe said. "This will have long-reaching impacts for our skating community."

U.S. Figure Skating said the skaters were returning from a developmental camp that followed the U.S. Figure Skating Championships over the weekend in Wichita, Kansas.

"U.S. Figure Skating can confirm that several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which collided with a helicopter yesterday evening in Washington, D.C.," the organization said in a statement. "We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims' families closely in our hearts."

The flight carried 60 passengers and four crew members, while an Army official said three soldiers were aboard the helicopter. The airplane collided with the helicopter while attempting to land, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the Potomac River.

Washington fire chief John Donnelly said Thursday morning that it is not believed that there are any survivors and that efforts have shifted to a recovery operation. Donnelly said 27 bodies had been recovered from the airplane and one from the helicopter.

Lane was the 2025 intermediate eastern sectionals champion and had become popular among the skating community on social media, where he has thousands of TikTok followers. On Wednesday, he had posted a video showing him doing a triple toe loop to wrap up the development camp and later posted a photo of himself aboard the plane just before it departed from Wichita.

Shishkova and Naumov had been coaching at the Boston club since 2017. Their son, Maxim Naumov, is a competitive figure skater for the U.S. who finished fourth at the U.S. championships. He had flown home Monday with Zeghibe.

Russia's figure skating federation expressed its condolences to those who had lost loved ones in the crash but said it was unable to comment further.

"There were other of our fellow citizens there. Bad news from Washington today," Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday morning.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the midair crash occurred before 9 p.m. ET when a regional jet from Wichita was making its approach to an airport runway and collided with a military helicopter on a training flight.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet coming from Wichita was making a routine landing when the helicopter flew into its path. All takeoffs and landings at Reagan National were halted as dive teams scoured the site and helicopters from law enforcement agencies across the region flew over the scene in a methodical search for bodies. Flights were expected to resume at Reagan National at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and what appeared to be the mangled wreckage of the plane's fuselage.

"As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly," President Donald Trump said at a news conference Thursday, adding, "We'll find out how this disaster occurred and will ensure that nothing like this ever happens again."

The Skating Club of Boston, which is set to host the world championships in March, is among the best-known clubs in the world, producing numerous Olympic and world champions. Among them have been two-time Olympic champion Dick Button, Olympic gold medalist Tenley Albright, two-time Olympic medalist Nancy Kerrigan and Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie. The club sent 18 skaters to Wichita, including Jimmy Ma, who finished fifth at the U.S. championships on Sunday.

Zeghibe said the club was proceeding with plans to host worlds.

The International Skating Union said it was "deeply shocked by the tragic accident."

"We are heartbroken to learn that figure skaters, along with their families, friends, and coaches, are understood to be among those on board," the global governing body said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy. Figure skating is more than a sport -- it's a close-knit family -- and we stand together. We remain in close contact with U.S. Figure Skating and offer our full support during this incredibly difficult time."

The crash occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over 3 miles south of the White House and the Capitol.

Investigators will try to piece together the aircrafts' final moments before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers and the loss of altitude by the passenger jet.

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: "PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ." Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.

Some 300 first responders were on scene. Inflatable rescue boats were launched into the Potomac River from a point along the George Washington Parkway, just north of the airport, and first responders set up light towers from the shore to illuminate the area near the collision site. At least a half dozen boats were scanning the water using searchlights.

The last fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, including 45 passengers, two pilots and two flight attendants. Another person on the ground also died, bringing the total death toll to 50.

This is not the first time that the U.S. figure skating community has been rocked by an air tragedy. In February 1961, the 18-member U.S. figure skating team died in a plane crash en route to the world championships in Prague. Also killed were six U.S. coaches and four skating officials, along with some family members. The world championships were canceled that year out of respect for the American team killed in the crash.

"Almost half of everybody on board that plane were from this club," Zeghibe said of the 1961 crash. "It had long, long-reaching implications for the skating club and for the sport in this country, because when you lose coaches like this, you lose the future of the sport as well. It's been a long time in redeveloping it, and I personally feel that this club in Boston has just now, almost 60 years later, been coming out of the shadow of that 1961 crash."

Wednesday's collision also recalled the crash of an Air Florida flight that plummeted into the Potomac on Jan. 13, 1982, and killed 78 people.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.