The plane, with 64 passengers and crew, was en route to Washington, DC, from Wichita, Kansas, when it collided midair with a US Army helicopter late on Wednesday.
A statement from US Figure Skating on Thursday alleged that athletes, coaches, and family members were all returning from the US Figure Skating Championships in Kansas in conjunction with the National Development Camp.
In a statement, the government said, “We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the families of the victims deeply in our hearts.”
Officials have suggested that there may be no survivors, but they have not disclosed how many people died in the accident.
Additionally, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, two former world champions and coaches of ice skating, were reported earlier in Russian state media.
Shishkova and Naumov, who were married, won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994.
Their son, Maxim, also a skater, may also have been on the plane, Russia’s TASS and RIA news agencies reported.
Inna Volyanskaya, a former skater who competed for the Soviet Union, was also reported to have been on board, TASS said. According to the Washington Figure Skating Club’s website, she was a coach.
After a midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport, an American Airlines regional passenger jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with the Potomac River, according to officials.
Source: Aljazeera
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