Six members of a figure skating club, including two teenagers and two Russian former World Champions, are among the victims of the plane crash in Washington DC on Wednesday evening.
Athletes, coaches and family members were on their way home from a National Development Camp, an event which followed the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, when their plane collided with a US Army helicopter.
Two of the teenagers onboard have been named as Spencer Lane, 16, and Jinna Han.
They were both members of the Skating Club of Boston and were travelling with their mothers.
Their Russian coaches, married couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov who won the 1994 World Championships in pairs figure skating, have also been confirmed as dead by the Kremlin.
Spencer Lane with coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.Credit: Instagram
Inna Volyanskaya, a bronze medalist in pairs skating at the 1980 USSR Championships, was also among the passengers.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov expressed their condolences, saying in a statement: “Bad news has come from Washington today. We are sorry. We offer our condolences to loved ones who lost our fellow citizens who died in this air crash.”
He added that there were currently “no plans on contact at the highest level” on the matter between the US and Russia.
A boat works at the scene of the crash in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.Credit: AP
The passenger plane was approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport to land when it crashed into a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training flight. Both planes landed in the nearby Potomac River.
In a press conference on Thursday, President Donald Trump confirmed there were no survivors.
He described the crash, which is likely to be the worst US aviation disaster in almost 24 years, as a “dark night” for the US.
