Passengers on the American Airlines flight that collided with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport Wednesday night, Jan. 20, included 14 members of the U.S. Figure skating community. The team was reportedly returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
Six victims were members of the Skating Club of Boston based in Norwood, Massachusetts. They include 16-year-old Spencer Lane and his mother, Christine, 13-year-old skater Jinna Han and her mother, Jin Han, and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
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Shishkova and Naumov won the 1994 World Championship as pairs skaters and twice competed in the Olympics. Skating legend and fellow Olympian Nancy Kerrigan is an alumnus of the Skating Club of Boston. She said she wanted to be with friends and family after learning who was on the plane.
“I think it’s a shock. I was watching –– I wasn’t woken up in the morning and saw it –– I was watching like all night, so I probably looked tired,” Kerrigan said. “But, and then when you find out, you know, you know some of the people on the plane is even a bigger blow.”
Kerrigan said she didn’t know the teenagers or their families very well but did know the coaches from their time together as competitive skaters. She added that she would often visit the club to lend her support.
On Thursday, Kerrigan said she felt she just needed to be a part of the community.
“Anytime I walked in, ‘Oh hi, it’s so good to see you.’ It was like, always welcoming and happy to see one another and like, so just, to think to walk in here and not see that is, I think, would be very strange for everybody that comes here. Especially those that are here day in and day out,” Kerrigan said.
Doug Zeghibe, the executive director of the Skating Club, said the outpouring of support has been helpful.
“I just can’t get to all the texts and emails that I’ve been getting, and it’s heartwarming, and I feel bad that I’m not responding as quickly as I might like,” Zeghibe said. “But it really does feel good to know that so many people from around the world and around this country really care.”
Zeghibe says The Skating Club of Boston will try to help its members get through the tragedy together. “Skating is a very close and tight-knit community. These kids and their parents, they’re here at our facility in Norwood six, sometimes seven days a week. It’s a close, tight bond. This will have long-reaching impacts for our skating community.”
In addition to the skaters and their families from Boston, The Philadelphia Skating Club said in a post on social media that “beloved members” of its team were also on the plane that crashed.
