_(1))
WASHINGTON — The 64 people aboard the passenger plane and the three soldiers on the Army helicopter that collided near Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night are presumed dead, with search-and-rescue officials pulling dozens of bodies from the icy Potomac River as of Thursday morning.
While few aboard the plane from Wichita, Kansas, and destined for the Virginia airport have been identified, the CEO of a Boston figure skating club confirmed six people associated with his organization were aboard: two teenage skaters, their mothers and their two coaches — a Russian-born married couple who competed in the Olympics and at the top levels of figure skating in the 1990s.
As many as 14 members of the skating community were on the flight, according to Doug Zeghibe, the CEO of the Skating Club of Boston. Natalya Gudin, the wife of former competitive skater and current coach Alexandr Kirsanov, told ABC News her husband was aboard the plane with two youth skaters. She was waiting Thursday in a Washington area hotel for news on her husband's body.
The Kremlin confirmed other Russians were on the jet. And Zeghibe said at a news conference that as many as 14 people associated with competitive figure skating were on the flight returning from a training camp after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita last weekend. The 23-year-old son of the coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, had returned home with Zeghibe earlier in the week after competing at the championships, he said.
“Skating is a very close and tight-knit community," Zeghibe said. "These kids and their parents, they’re here ... six, sometimes seven days a week. It’s a close, tight bond. This will have long-reaching impacts for our skating community.”
U.S. Figure Skating, the sport’s governing body, said in a statement that “several members of our skating community were sadly aboard” the flight, but did not confirm a total.
The Washington-area United Association Steamfitters Local 602 union said four members were among the victims, but did not identify them.
Here’s what we know about the victims of the collision as of midday Thursday:
The soldiers on the helicopter
The three soldiers on the helicopter were doing an annual night proficiency training flight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, adding they were a “fairly experienced crew.” Their names had not been released as officials were notifying relatives, he said. President Donald Trump did not identify the dead soldiers, but blamed them in part for the collision at a news conference Thursday.
“The people in the helicopter should have seen where they were going," Trump said. "I can’t imagine people with 20-20 vision not seeing what’s happening up there. I see it all the time when I’m flying. You have planes going in the opposite [direction]. They’re always lower or we’re higher. So if somehow there’s a screwup, there’s not going to be a tragedy.”
“What was the helicopter doing in that [plane’s] track? It’s very sad. But visually, somebody should’ve been able to see and take that helicopter out of play,” he added.
The bodies of the three soldiers were recovered on Thursday, U.S. officials told The Associated Press. Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation, said the crew flying the helicopter was "very experienced" and were familiar with the congested flying environment around the nation's capital.
The crew included an instructor pilot and pilot in command who were experienced to the point where either crew member “could manage that helicopter by themselves,” Koziol said.
The instructor pilot, who was serving as pilot in command, had about 1,000 flight hours, Koziol said. The instructor pilot was evaluating the second pilot — who was also qualified as a pilot in command — for that night training flight. The pilot who was being evaluated had about 500 flight hours, Koziol said.
The wife of one of the helicopter pilots said on Facebook that her husband, Andrew Eaves of Noxubee County, Mississippi, was killed. In a phone call, Carrie Eaves confirmed the post was hers.
“We ask that you pray for our family and friends and for all the other families that are suffering today. We ask for peace while we grieve,” her post read.
Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov
Shishkova and Naumov won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships in Chiba, Japan. They competed twice in the Olympics, finishing fifth in mixed pairs in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, and fourth in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. They married in 1995, according to an archived press release.
According to their biographies on the Skating Club of Boston’s website, Shishkova and Naumov began coaching in the early 2000s, with experience training the U.S. national team. They joined the club in Boston in 2017 after coaching in Connecticut.
Zeghibe said the pair’s training methods were “very popular with families” and a “proven success."
Their son, Maxim Naumov, was the 2020 U.S. junior national champion. He placed fourth in the national championship for men’s free skate Sunday. Zeghibe said it was “well known mom was always too nervous to watch him skate, but his dad was with him” and that Maxim had been slated to compete at a major global skating competition in a couple of weeks.
“Once again, Maxim made us all proud, getting on to the podium at Nationals,” the parents wrote in an Instagram post on their joint account this week. “This beautiful and emotional performance is a result of a team work.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Shishkova and Naumov were aboard the plane.
Teen athletes and their mothers
Skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane were returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Jinna, about 15 years old, and Spencer, about 16, were traveling with their mothers, Jin Han and Christine Lane, respectively, and their coaches, said Zeghibe.
Zeghibe said the childrens’ fathers were on their way to Washington. The families and the coaches had flown to the Washington area because there were no direct flights from Wichita to Boston.
“I would say both families very much embedded in our community just for the sheer amount of time they're here and, personally, I’ll just say, wonderful people,” Zeghibe said.
He went on to say Spencer was “in the best possible way, a crazy kid” and said he was “highly talented” and “rocketing to the top of the sport” despite not competing that long. And he described Gina as “just a wonderful kid, wonderful parents, great athlete, great competitor, loved by all.”
Lane had become popular among the skating community on social media, where he has thousands of TikTok followers.
“I am so happy to have qualified for national development camp earlier in November," he said in an Instagram post Wednesday. "It has been my goal almost ever since I became aware that it was a thing."
He later posted a photo of him aboard the plane just before it departed from Wichita.
The Skating Club of Boston, which is set to host the world championships in March, is among the best-known clubs in the world, producing two Olympic gold medalists and even more world champions. Among them have been two-time Olympic champion Dick Button, Olympic gold medalist Tenley Albright, two-time Olympic medalist Nancy Kerrigan and Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie.
In 1961, a plane crash killed an entire U.S. skating delegation en route to the world championships in Prague. The world championships were canceled that year out of respect for the American team killed in the crash. Zeghibe said many of those who died on that flight were from the Boston club, too.
The plane's crew
Flight attendant Ian Epstein from Charlotte, N.C., was one of the crew members on board the American Airlines flight, his ex-wife Debi Epstein wrote on Facebook. She told the Charlotte Observer they had two children together, one of whom is set to get married in eight weeks.
"He made flying fun for the passengers on the plane so they didn't get scared," she told the paper. "He was always the jokester and just doing the announcements with the twist."
One of the pilots was first officer Sam Lilley, his father Tim Lilley told NewsNation and other outlets.
From northern Virginia
Three students from schools in Fairfax County, Virginia and six parents from the district were on board the plane, superintendent Michelle Reid said in a letter to families. She did not identify them, but said the students were from different schools and that two of the parents were current or former district staffers.
In neighboring Loudoun County, a coach at a skating club was also identified as among the passengers, Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam confirmed. The club, Ashburn Ice House, said that its “figure skating community has been directly affected,” but did not give further details.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.