(WASHINGTON) — Fourteen figure skaters — including some young athletes called the “rising stars” of the sport — are among the victims of the first major commercial plane crash in the United States since 2009, officials said.
The Skating Club of Boston was devastated by the crash, according to Doug Zeghibe, the club’s CEO and executive director, who said six of the victims were from the Boston club, including two coaches, two teenage athletes and two moms of athletes.
“Our sport and this club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,” Zeghibe said. “Skating is a tight-knit community where parents and kids come together six or seven days a week to train and work together. Everyone is like family. We are devastated and completely at a loss for words.”
Zeghibe identified the skaters from the Skating Club of Boston as Jinna Ha and Spencer Lane. Ha’s mother, Jin Han, and Lane’s mother, Christine Lane, were also on board.
He identified the two coaches as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. The two were 1994 World Pair Champions who joined the club in 2017, Zeghibe said.
“Six is a horrific number for us but we’re fortunate and grateful it wasn’t more than six,” Zeghibe said. “This will have long reaching impacts for our skating community.”
The figure skaters and coaches were returning from a training camp held in conjunction with the recent U.S. national championships in Wichita, Kansas. They were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday evening, officials said. No survivors were expected in the crash, officials said Thursday. There were 64 people aboard the plane and three in the helicopter, according to officials.
Natalya Gudin, the wife of Alexandr Kirsanov, a coach of two youth ice skaters on board the flight, said she has “lost everything” in the crash. Gudin, also a skating coach, decided to stay home in Delaware while Kirsanov flew to Kansas for the development camp. She says she spoke with her husband as he boarded the flight on Wednesday.
“I lost my husband, I lost my students, I lost my friends,” Gudin told ABC News. “I need my husband back. I need his body back.”
The University of Delaware said Sasha Kirsanov, a former figure skating club coach, was also on the airplane, along with two young skaters who were also members of the club.
“Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all of the victims of this horrible tragedy,” said President of the University of Delaware Dennis Assanis.
The U.S. Figure Skating community has been struck by tragedy in a plane crash before. An entire U.S. figure skating team died in a plane crash on Feb. 15, 1961. The plane, Sabena Flight 548, was carrying the team to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Along with the team, 16 family members, coaches and friends of the skaters died in the crash.
“Like today, 1961 was a tragic moment, it was the day the music stopped, very much like this,” said longtime member of the Skating Club of Boston Paul George during a Thursday press conference. “It was a very vivid reminder of 1961. My wife tapped me on the shoulder at 6:30 (a.m.) and told me, much as my father had done 64 years ago at about the same time of day.”
Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano told ABC News he knew the two Russian skating coaches, Naumov and Shishkova, and had handed the fourth-place award to the pair’s son at the U.S. championships in Wichita last weekend.
“We are a really close-knit community. The skaters — we are all connected. So when something happens to one of us, it reverberates through everyone.”
The U.S. figure skating world has emerged from the shadows of tragedy before, he said.
“From the 1961 plane crash, we did rise from that,” Boitano said, adding “It took years to build.”
During a press conference Thursday, Olympic medalist and renowned figure skater Nancy Kerrigan fought back tears as she explained the impact of the crash on the skating community, urging others to “tell people around you that you love them, because you just never know.”
“Skating teaches you the main lesson in life: You get back up,” Kerrigan said. “Even when it’s hard, even when you’re crying, even when you’re hurt. And that’s what we all have to do now — together.”
Oklahoma City figure skating coach Jackie Brenner was in Wichita with the skaters, coaches and officials who later boarded the flight.
“I was there on Sunday at a coaching workshop, which was the first day of U.S. figure skating development camp as they were coming into their two days of training,” Brenner said. The camp draws the sport’s “rising stars,” she said.
“That’s our next generation for U.S. figure skating,” she told ABC News, adding, “You can just imagine how devastated U.S. figure skating community is.”
CEO of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Sarah Hirshland said the young skaters who were lost “represented the bright future of Team USA, embodying the very essence of what it means to represent our country — perseverance, resilience and hope.”
“They were remarkable young people and talents, passionately pursuing their dreams, and they will forever hold a cherished place in the Team USA family,” Hirshland said in a statement. “We extend our sincerest condolences during this unimaginable time.”
The last commercial plane crash in the U.S. happened on Feb. 12, 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed during landing near Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 people onboard.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
