(Reuters) – All 64 people aboard a flight from Wichita, Kansas – 60 passengers and four crew members – and the three soldiers on a U.S. Army helicopter were believed dead after the two aircraft collided in a fiery explosion near Washington, D.C.
The victims include figure skaters, family members and coaches who had been attending a national training camp for top young skaters in Kansas. Among the victims were Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, former world champions in pairs figure skating who coached young skaters in the Boston area.
Here is what we know about some of the victims:
SPENCER LANE AND JINNA HAN
Spencer and Jinna, both around 16 years old, trained almost every day at the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, according to the club’s executive director, Doug Zeghibe. The Lane family lived in Rhode Island, and the Han family lived in the Boston area.
The two young skaters had been attending U.S. Figure Skating’s National Development Camp in Wichita, an elite training camp that followed last week’s U.S. national championships for skaters seen as “the future of the sport,” Zeghibe said.
“Spencer, in the best way possible, was a crazy kid – highly talented, incredibly talented,” Zeghibe told reporters at the club on Thursday morning. “Has not been skating that long and just rocketing to the top of the sport – very fun, very cerebral, a very good thinker.”
Spencer posted a photo of the wing of the plane before it took off from Wichita on Instagram, according to media reports, with a caption listing Washington as the destination.
In another post, he said qualifying for the camp had been a longtime goal. He thanked Shishkova and Naumov, among others, for an “amazing experience.”
Jinna was a “wonderful kid,” Zeghibe said.
“Wonderful parents, great athlete, great competitor, loved by all,” he told reporters.
Spencer’s mother, Christine, and Jinna’s mother, Jin, were also on the plane. Both were “role model parents” who made a lot of sacrifices to help their children excel in the sport, Zeghibe said.
YEVGENIA SHISHKOVA AND VADIM NAUMOV
The Russian-born Shishkova and Naumov, who were married, won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994 and had coached at the Skating Club of Boston since 2017.
“They were talented and beautiful people,” said Ludmila Velikova in St. Petersburg, where she trained both skaters when they were children. “Zhenya (Shishkova) trained with me from the age of 11 and Vladik (Naumov) from age 14. They were like my own children.”
The couple’s son, Maxim, also a skater, finished in fourth place in the men’s free skate at the U.S. national championships last week. He left Wichita after the competition and was not on Wednesday’s plane.
Zeghibe described Vadim Naumov as an “old-school” coach who applied the strict “Russian method” to his students.
Shishkova, Zeghibe said, was incredibly tough and resilient, as many female pairs skaters are.
“You could not see Genia without breaking into a smile,” he said, using a nickname.
INNA VOLYANSKAYA
Russian-born Volyanskaya, a skating coach in the Washington area, was on board the plane, according to a X post from U.S. Representative Suhas Subramanyam and a report from the Russian news agency TASS.
Volyanskaya competed as a pairs skater for the Soviet Union in the 1980s. She coached young skaters at the Washington Figure Skating Club, according to the club’s website.
In a statement on Thursday, the club did not confirm whether any member or coach was on the flight but said it was “devastated” by news of the crash.
“More information will be posted when appropriate,” the club said.
(Reporting by Rich McKay, Hannah Lang and Joseph Ax; Editing by Frank McGurty and Nick Zieminski)
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