Passengers aboard the American Airways flight that collided with an Military helicopter and crashed into the frigid waters of the Potomac River included determine skaters coming back from the U.S. Determine Skating Championships and two of their Russian coaches.
There have been 60 passengers and 4 crew members on the American Airways flight on Wednesday and three troopers aboard the coaching flight on the Blackhawk helicopter. It was believed that there have been no survivors.
“We at the moment are on the level the place we’re switching from a rescue operation to a restoration operation,” mentioned John Donnelly, the fireplace chief within the nation’s capital, on Thursday morning. “We don’t believe there are any survivors.”
U.S. Determine Skating mentioned in a press release that a number of skaters, coaches and their members of the family had been on the industrial flight after attending a improvement camp that adopted the championships, which wrapped up Sunday in Wichita, Kansas.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” U.S. Determine Skating mentioned in a press release.
Two of these coaches had been recognized by the Kremlin as a Russian couple who had been pairs world champions 30 years in the past.
Listed here are the passengers recognized thus far:
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Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov
Shishkova and Naumov gained the pairs title on the 1994 world championships in Chiba, Japan. They competed twice within the Olympics.
The Skating Membership of Boston lists them as coaches. Their son, Maxim Naumov, is a aggressive determine skater for the U.S.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Shishkova and Naumov had been aboard the aircraft.
The Worldwide Skating Union despatched a press release saying it was deeply shocked and heartbroken.
