Authorities report that they have identified 14 skaters who were traveling by wasting plane in Washington on Wednesday night. The Kremlin, in Moscow, confirmed the identity of some of the victims.
Two teenage skaters, their mothers and two former world champions who trained in a Boston historic club were among the 14 members of the skating community who died when an American Airlines flight collided with an army helicopter on Wednesday night and It crashed into the icy waters of the Potomac River.
The Jinna Han and Spencer Lane skaters were among the deceased, along with the Russian coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, world champions of couples of 1994, confirmed Thursday at a press conference Doug Zeghibe, executive director of the Boston skating club.
In total, the 14 victims returned from a National Development Camp for young promises of skating after the United States Championship in Wichita, Kansas, said Zeghibe.
“Skating is a very united and compact community. These children and their parents are here at our facilities in Norwood, six, sometimes seven days a week. It is a narrow and solid link, ”said Zeghibe. “This will have long -range impacts for our skating community.”
The Kremlin also confirmed that Shishkova and Naumov were on board. Among his students is his 23 -year -old son, Maxim, a youth champion from the United States who has finished fourth in the national championships senior the last three years. Maxim failed to get on the podium while his parents watched him at the Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita.
Maxim Naumov flew home on Monday. “He had no reason to stay in the National Development Camp,” Zegibe said in an informative session inside the track about 30 minutes south of Boston.
“His parents were with him while competing. It is well known that his mother always made him too nervous to see him skating, ”said the club official, pauses to contain his emotions. “But his dad was with him, and Dad was in the area sharing his great performance.”
The American Airlines plane transported on Wednesday to 60 passengers and four crew members, while three soldiers were aboard the Blackhawk helicopter on a training flight.
The cause of the clash was not immediately identified, but the officials said the flight conditions were clear while the jet from Wichita made a routine landing when the helicopter crossed in his way.
Washington's fire chief John Donnelly said officials do not believe there are survivors.
“We are disconsolate to know that skating, along with their families, friends and coaches, were on board,” said the United States artistic skating federation in a statement. “Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy.”
“Artistic skating is more than a sport, it is a very united family, and we are together.”
Considered one of the most prestigious clubs in the world, the Boston skating club has produced Olympic and world champions such as Dick Button and Tenley Albright, as well as the Nancy Kerrigan and Paul Wylie Olympic medalists and numerous US champions.
Among them were Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, who won the title of couples last week. The club, which is preparing to house the world championships this spring, sent 18 skaters to the nationals, including Jimmy Ma, who finished fifth in Sunday's championships.
The flags The Federation and Massachusetts were placed on Thursday at half -mast outside the newly built track of the club.
Among the visitors on Thursday were Albright and Kerrigan, twice Olympic medalist and former student of the Boston skating club. In the two club practice, young skaters practiced their routines in silence.
“The skaters are resilient and want to skate,” said Zeghibe. “I also believe that they come to the club and will come to the club as an opportunity to meet and cry together.”
A table that had been full of messages wishing to all skaters in Wichita was replaced in the middle of the day by one with framed photos of Lane and have in action. Behind them, six white roses were in six simple vases.
“I am disconsolate by the tragic loss of my fellow skaters in this devastating accident,” said the world champion Reinano Ilia Malinin, who won his third consecutive national title in Wichita. “The artistic skating community is a family, and this loss is indescribable.”
Spencer Lane is a sectional champion who had become popular among the skating community on social networks, where he has thousands of followers in Tiktok. On Wednesday, he published a video in which he is seen training.
“I am so happy to have qualified for the National Development Camp,” said Lane in an Instagram post on Wednesday. “It has been my goal almost since I realized that it was one thing. I learned a lot of new information that I can apply to my daily life and met many incredible people. ”
He later published a photo of him aboard the plane just before he left Wichita.
Lane's father said Spencer had a contagious personality.
“In his local club in Boston, he was simply loved by all, from adults who directed the club to smaller skaters to people who compete for a place at the Olympic Games,” Douglas Lane told WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island . “They simply worshiped him.”
Naumov and Shishkova moved to the United States and became coaches, first at the Connecticut International Skating Center and since 2017 at the Boston Club that has served as a training field for world -class skating since 1912. They competed together at events at events of couples in two Olympic Games.
For the Boston Club, the accident was a gloomy reminder of a 1961 plane crash that killed the entire US delegation en route to the world championships in Prague. The world championships were canceled that year in respect for the American team dead in the accident.
“Almost half of all those who were aboard that plane were from this club,” said Zeghibe. “He had long -range implications for the skating club and for sports in this country, because when you lose coaches like that, you also lose the future of sport.”
The club is preparing to receive world championships at the Garden TD in Boston from March 25 to 30. Zeghibe said the plans are having an event “super, incredible.”
European championships are taking place this week in Tallin, Estonia. They continued, as scheduled.