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The tragedy that unfolded in the skies above Washington D.C. on Wednesday, January 29, involving an American Airlines jet and a United States Army Black Hawk helicopter claimed the lives of a cohort of competitive figure skaters, retired champions, athletic coaches, and family members.
Knewz.com has learned that the said members of the competitive figure skating communities were onboard American Airlines flight 5342, a CRJ700 Bombardier, which collided with the military helicopter and plunged into the Potomac River.
An anonymous source within the figure skating community confirmed that the casualties suffered in the incident included minors.
It has been reported that around 20 of the passengers onboard the American Airlines flight were competitive figure skaters or coaches.
"The crash happened three days after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships — the most prestigious annual event on the American figure skating calendar — concluded in Wichita," reports have mentioned.
"The week-long event crowned national champions across four categories at junior and senior levels, attracting figure skaters and their coaches and families from across the United States," the report added.
According to a statement from U.S. Figure Skating, the sport’s national governing body, some of the younger athletes remained in Wichita after the championships to attend an advanced training program and were not onboard the flight.
The Kremlin has confirmed that renowned Russian former figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov perished in the ill-fated American Airlines flight.
It has been reported that Naumov was a coach with the U.S. national team, while his wife Shishkova was the assistant coach to many U.S. champions of the sport.
"The Skating Club of Boston, where Shishkova and Naumov coached, confirmed their deaths, as well as those of junior skater Jinna Han, 15; her mother, Jin; junior skater Spencer Lane, 16, and his mother, Christine," reports have added.
Alexandr Kirsanov, a coach of two of the youth ice skaters on board the American Airlines plane, also died in the fatal air crash. Reports said that he was traveling with the youth skaters to attend a development camp in Kansas this week.
Natalya Gudin, Kirsanov's wife, said in a statement, "I lost everything. I lost my husband, I lost my students, I lost my friends," adding that she last spoke to her husband while he was boarding the flight.
The American Airlines flight took off from Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew members and was bound for the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The mid-air collision happened during the flight's final descent to the airport at around 9 p.m. ET.
The Black Hawk helicopter was undergoing a training sortie, meaning a flight undertaken by an aircraft or group of soldiers for training purposes, at the time, and the two aircraft crashed into each other 400 ft above the Potomac River.
According to reports, over 300 first responders were dispatched to the Potomac River on inflatable boats in a "desperate" search for survivors.
It has also been reported that this is the first fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial flight since 2009—when 50 people died in New York in a Bombardier DHC-C propeller aircraft crash.