Six people with ties to a local skating club were killed in last night’s plane crash in Washington, D.C.
At a news conference Thursday morning, Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said that two of their coaches, two teenage skaters and their mothers were all aboard when American Eagle Flight 5342 collided with a military helicopter and plunged into the Potomac River. He identified the skaters as Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, parents Jin Han and Christine Lane, and coaches Vadim Naumov and Evginia Shishkova, who were husband and wife.
“Our sport and this Club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,” said Zeghibe. “We are devastated and completely at a loss for words.”
Zeghibe said the skaters, their parents, and the coaches were on their way back from U.S. Figure Skating’s National Development Camp that came after last week’s U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
He noted the sad similarities between the Wednesday night crash and a 1961 plane crash in Belgium that led to the deaths of the entire U.S. figure skating team, and said that half of the team that died in that incident also had ties to the club.
“I personally feel that this club, the Skating Club of Boston has just now, almost sixty years later, been coming out of the shadow of that 1961 crash,” said Zeghibe. So this is particularly devastating.“
A total of 64 people were on the American Eagle plane that crashed Wednesday night. Recovery workers are still working at the scene, but it’s not believed there are any survivors.
