The European figure skating championships have carried on, even as the skating world mourned athletes who died when an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C.
The skaters were returning from a training camp that followed the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which took place in Wichita and finished Sunday.
Several members' of the U.S. Figure Skating team were onboard the American Airlines plane that collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter over Washington, D.C., the governing body said in a statement.
In 1961, the plane carrying the U.S. team to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia crashed, killing all passengers, including the team members, officials, and family members on board.
The Games opened on Jan. 25, with a parade of competing nations. The next day, U.S. skater Charles Jewtraw claimed the first ever Winter Olympic gold medal, winning the 500-meter speed skating event. Finland’s Clas Thunberg won five speed skating medals, including three on Jan. 27.
An American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members has collided with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River.
The ice skating community in Greater Boston is waiting to learn if fellow skaters or coaches are among those killed in the mid-air collision of an American Airlines plane.
Two of those coaches were identified by the Kremlin as Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov
A airplane and military helicopter collided in Washington, D.C., before plunging into the Potomac River. Here's who was on board, flight path and more.
Members of the U.S figure skating team were aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 when it collided with a military helicopter near Washington, D.C, on Wednesday night and plunged into the Potomac River,
Several coaches and skaters with the United States figure skating team were on the flight from Wichita to Washington, D.C., that crashed Wednesday night, according to U.S. Figure Skating. The flight is not believed to have any survivors.