Elite figure skaters, including two Russian world champions, were among those on board the American Airlines plane that crashed in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, according to local and foreign officials, likely killing everyone on board.
U.S. Figure Skating confirmed that “several” members of its organization were on Flight 5342 that crashed into the icy Potomac River around 9 p.m. local time. A spokesperson declined to specify how many of its members were on board.
“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,” a spokesperson for the organization, which is the sport’s national governing body, said in a statement to HuffPost.
“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,” they added.
Former world figure skating champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were also among those on board, a Kremlin spokesperson said at a press conference, according to Reuters and the Guardian.
“There were other of our fellow citizens there as well,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to The Washington Post.
The married couple won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994 and were named Russia’s national pairs champions in 1991 and 1996. They were also two-time Olympians.
They had been living in the U.S., according to local media, while training young skaters in Boston, according to coaching profiles on the Skating Club of Boston.
The couple have a son Maxim Naumov who skated for the U.S. national team and was named an alternate skater for the 2025 U.S. team following the U.S. Figure Skating Championships event in Wichita last week, according to U.S. Figure Skating.
His parents expressed pride in their son’s performance at the nationals in a post on Instagram Tuesday.
Doug Zeghibe, CEO and executive director of the Skating Club of Boston, told local station WCVB that 14 members of the U.S. Figure Skating team were on the plane. Two skaters, two coaches and two parents on the flight were with his skating club. Maxim Naumov was not among those on the plane, he said.
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The flight carrying 60 passengers and four crew members from Wichita collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter that was on a training mission. No survivors are expected from either aircraft, authorities said at a Thursday morning press conference.
Twenty-seven bodies had been recovered from the plane as of late Thursday morning. One had been recovered from the helicopter, said D.C.’s fire chief.