Elite figure skaters and coaches on crashed US flight

Global figure skating's tight-knit community was in mourning on Thursday after a passenger jet crash in Washington killed two former world champion coaches and stars from the next generation of top US talent.

Former Russian world pairs champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov and at least two other elite skating coaches, and as many as 14 American skaters were lost when a plane collided midair with a US Army helicopter on Wednesday night.

American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, crashed into the Potomac River, with President Donald Trump announcing Thursday there were no survivors.

Among those grief-stricken was Nancy Kerrigan, a former US women's champion and two-time Olympic and world medalist based in Boston, where the World Figure Skating Championships will be held in March.

"Not sure how to process it," she said, breaking down in tears. "When you find out you know some of the people on the plane, it's an even bigger blow."

Doug Zeghibe, chief executive officer of The Skating Club of Boston, confirmed six club members were on the plane, including 1994 world pairs champions Shishkova and Naumov, and said many more were believed to have been aboard.

"To the best of our knowledge, 14 skaters returning home... were lost in the plane crash," Zeghibe said.

He said the passengers were returning from US Figure Skating's national development camp, conducted in Wichita following last week's US Figure Skating Championships there.

"This camp is for young competitive stars of tomorrow with the most promise to be a champion of tomorrow," Zeghibe said.

US Figure Skating, in a statement, confirmed only that "several members of our skating community" were on the plane after the camp.

"We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims' families closely in our hearts."

The Skating Club of Boston said skaters Jinna Han, 13, and Spencer Lane, 16, their mothers Jin Han and Christine Lane and Naumov and Shishkova were aboard the plane that crashed into the icy Potomac.

"I've never seen anyone love skating as much as these two and that's why I think it hurts so much," Kerrigan said of Han and Lane.

"The kids care. They work really hard to be here. Their parents work hard. I feel for the skaters and their families but anyone who was on that plane, not just the skaters, because it's just such a tragic event."

It also could be a lost generation of champion talent for US figure skating.

"Our sport and this club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy," Zeghibe said.

"Skating is a tight-knit community where parents and kids come together six or seven days a week to train and work together. Everyone is like family.

"We are devastated and completely at a loss for words."

Congressman Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia posted on social media that among those killed was Russian skating coach Inna Volyanskaya of the Washington Figure Skating Club.

Alexandr Kirsanov, another Russian coach, was on the plane, according to his wife Natalya Gudin, who told ABC News she has "lost everything" and spoke to her husband just before he boarded the flight.

Naumov and Shishkova, who coached in Boston since 2017, will be missed, Kerrigan said.

"To walk in here and not see (them) would be very strange for everybody," she said. "And it's going to be hard."

Naumov and Shishkova have a 23-year-old son, Maxim Naumov, who won the 2020 US junior men's title and placed fourth at last week's US nationals. Zeghibe said Maxim Naumov was not aboard the plane.

The International Skating Union (ISU), figure skating's world governing body, said it was "shocked" and "heartbroken" at the crash, a disaster that revived memories of a February 1961 tragedy involving the US figure skating squad.

The entire 18-member US figure skating team bound for the world championships in Prague was killed when a plane from New York crashed as it was preparing to land in Brussels. js/mlm