US figure skaters and Russian ice skating coaches and world champions of 1990 Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane that hit a helicopter before crashing into the Potomac River in Washington DC on Wednesday night.
The sport’s US governing body said in a statement that “several” athletes, coaches and family members, who were involved with US Figure Skating were on the doomed flight, BBC reported.
As many as 15 passengers on the flight may have been involved in figure skating, news agency Reuters reported citing sources.
“Several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342,” the statement from US Figure Skating confirmed.
The US group of skaters were returning home from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, where they had gone to attend the US National Figure Skating championships from 20 January to 26 January. A development camp was hosted for young skaters after the championship, the statement added.
The plane was carrying 64 passengers and crew when it collided mid-air with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday, and then plunged into the water. The collision happened near Reagan Washington National Airport.
All 64 people onboard the flight are feared dead, Emergency services chief John Donnelly said. So far bodies of 27 passengers have been recovered. The plane’s remnants were found upside down in three sections in waist-deep water in the river. The rescue teams are continuing to search the waters, but it is being believed that there were no survivors.
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Russian world champions Shishkov and Naumov were married to each other and had won the championships in pairs figure skating in 1994. They had been living in the US since 1998, where they were training young ice skaters.
The couple’s son Maxim, who competed for the US in singles, is also feared to have been on the plane, Russian news agency TASS reported. He was competing at the US figure skating championships in Kansas, the same event where the US skaters, who were also on the flight, had competed.
The couple was reportedly returning from the competition and was with a group of young skaters. A list with 13 names of skaters who were believed to be on the plane was published by a Russian news outlet Mash, which said that many of them were children of Russian emigres to the US.
A former skater for the Soviet Union, Inna Volyanskaya, was also on board the flight, according to Russian news agency TASS.
After Russian news agency reports named the skating couple, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the “sad information” that Russian citizens were on the flight, without specifying names, BBC reported.
Meanwhile, Nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has grounded all flights.
