Among the confirmed victims of the American Airlines jet carrying 64 people that collided in midair with an army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers were young figure skaters returning from the US figure skating championships, along with their parents and coaches, and a North Carolina-based flight attendant.
The Skating Club of Boston said in a statement on Thursday that Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, along with their parents Jin Han and Christine Lane and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were aboard the plane on Wednesday night.
The group was returning from the US figure skating national development camp, a program for “young competitive skaters of tomorrow”, following last week’s US championships in Wichita, Kansas.
“Our sport and this club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,” said Doug Zeghibe, the CEO and director of the Skating Club of Boston. “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.”
The most recent post on Lane’s Instagram profile was a photograph from the inside of a plane on a runway, with the caption “ICT -> DCA” – the codes for Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower National airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National airport in Washington DC.
Lane was reportedly 16 years old, and from Barrington, Rhode Island, according to Reuters.
The Russian-born ice-skating coaches and former world champions Shishkova and Naumov were married and had lived in the US since 1998. They won the 1994 world championships in pairs figure skating.
Inna Volyanskaya, a former skater who competed for the Soviet Union and was a coach at the Washington figure skating club, was also reported to have been on board.
Volyanskaya’s ex-husband, Ross Lansel, also a skate coach, told NBC that he was devastated by the news.
“It’s going to be so hard without her, it’s tough, because she meant a lot to these kids,” he said. “Inna was unique, one of the best skaters I’ve ever seen.”
In a statement, US Figure Skating, the sport’s domestic governing body, said: “We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts.”
The International Skating Union added that the global skating community was “deeply shocked by the tragic accident” and that it was “heartbroken to learn that figure skaters, along with their families, friends, and coaches, are understood to be among those on board”.
Loudoun county public school district in Virginia announced that multiple of the victims were former students and Fairfax county public schools in Virginia said that three of their students and six of their parents were among the victims. Two of the parents were current or former FCPS staff members, the statement added.
“We are devastated by the tragic news,” the statement reads.
Natalya Gudin, the wife of the ice-skating coach Alexandr Kirsanov, told ABC News that her husband and two young ice skaters he was coaching were on board the flight.
Gudin, who is also an ice-skating coach, told the outlet she decided to stay home in Delaware while her husband flew to Kansas for the camp and that she last spoke with him as he boarded the flight on Wednesday.
“I lost my husband, I lost my students, I lost my friends,” Gudin said. “I need my husband back. I need his body back.”
Bill Melugin, a correspondent for Fox News, wrote on X that his friend Wendy Shaffer lost her life in the plane crash.
“Wendy was an incredible wife to my friend Nate, and an amazing mom of two children, ages 3 and 1,” he wrote.
On social media, a woman said that her husband, Ian Epstein, a North Carolina-based flight attendant, was also onboard the plane.
Debi Epstein wrote in a post on Facebook that it is “with very heavy heart and extreme sadness that myself along with our children Hannah Epstein and Joanna Epstein and his sister Robbie Epstein Bloom her husband Steven Bloom and nieces Andi and Dani inform you that Ian Epstein was one of the flight attendants on American Airlines Flight 5342 that collided last night when they were landing in DC”.
Epstein’s own Facebook page notes that he worked at PSA Airlines, which is part of the American Airlines Group.
Other Facebook users have posted about the news regarding Epstein, describing him as someone who was “passionate about flying” and someone who loved his job.
“I will never forget walking you thru the airport after you saved and safely evacuated 80 people out of a burning plane a few years ago,” one user wrote. “And everyone applauding you as you walked through the terminal.”
A father has also identified his son, 28-year-old Sam Lilley, as one of the two pilots aboard the American Airlines aircraft.
On Facebook, his father, Timothy Lilley, wrote how “proud” he was when Sam became a pilot. “Now it hurts so bad I can’t even cry myself to sleep,” he wrote, adding that his son, who was the first officer on the flight, was engaged to get married in the fall.
American Airlines has not released the names of the flight crew members.
Hamaad Raza, also identified his wife, Asra Hussain, 26, to Newsweek as one of the passengers who was aboard the flight. Raza was interviewed on Wednesday night at the airport while he was waiting for his wife.
“I’m just praying that someone is pulling her out of the river right now,” he told the reporters on Wednesday night.
A father in Wichita, Kansas, identified his daughter, 20-year-old Grace Maxwell, to the Wichita Eagle, as being one of the 60 passengers on the flight. Her father, Dean Maxwell, told the outlet that she was on her way back to college and had returned home to Wichita to attend her grandfather’s funeral.
He said that he doesn’t know when he’ll get more information or whether she is among the passengers who have been recovered from the Potomac River. “We don’t know,” Maxwell said, adding “we do know she was on the plane.”
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry confirmed on Thursday that four of of members of the association’s steamfitters local 602 union in Maryland were among the victims of the flight. Their names have not yet been released.
“We’re heartbroken to share that four UA Brothers were among the victims of the tragic crash of American Airlines Flight 5342,” the labor union wrote in a statement. “May they rest in peace.”
The New York Times identified one of the steamfitters as 40-year-old Michael Stovall, a Maryland resident, who had been on a hunting trip with his friends in Kansas.
Stovall was flying with at least six of his friends from the trip on Wednesday night, a cousin said. Another member of the group has been identified as 30-year-old Jesse Pitcher, who had been married just over a year and owned his own plumbing business.
On social media, friends described Pitcher as a “true friend” who was “always down for an adventure”.
On Thursday morning, US officials said that they did not believe that there were any survivors.
Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, said in a statement that the committee was “deeply saddened by the tragic air accident in Washington DC”, and extended sympathies to all those affected.
“Our thoughts are with all the victims, their families and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Bach added.
On Thursday afternoon, officials said that the bodies of all three soldiers who were in the helicopter had been recovered. Their identities have not been released.
