WASHINGTON (AP) — Passengers aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the frigid waters of the Potomac River included figure skaters returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and two of their Russian coaches.
Here’s what we know so far:
- What caused the collision? That’s unclear as of Thursday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration said the midair collision occurred around 9 p.m. EST when a regional jet that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military Blackhawk helicopter on a training flight while on approach to an airport runway.
- Are there casualties? The search was ongoing for other casualties, but officials did not believe there were any other survivors, which would make it the deadliest U.S. air crash in nearly 24 years. American Airlines says 60 passengers and 4 crew members were on the plane. Three soldiers were onboard the helicopter, an Army official said.
- What’s the latest on the search efforts? All takeoffs and landings from the airport are halted as dive teams scoured the site and helicopters from law enforcement agencies across the region flew over the scene in a methodical search for bodies.
There were 60 passengers and four crew members on the American Airlines flight on Wednesday and three soldiers aboard the training flight on the Blackhawk helicopter. It was believed that there were no survivors.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital, on Thursday morning. “We don’t believe there are any survivors.”
U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement that several skaters, coaches and their family members were on the commercial flight after attending a development camp that followed the championships that wrapped up Sunday in Wichita, Kansas.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement.
Two of those coaches were identified by the Kremlin as a Russian couple who were pairs world champions 30 years ago.
Here are the passengers identified so far:
Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov
Shishkova and Naumov won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships in Chiba, Japan. They competed twice in the Olympics.
The Skating Club of Boston lists them as coaches. Their son, Maxim Naumov, is a competitive figure skater for the U.S.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Shishkova and Naumov were aboard the plane.
“Unfortunately, we see that this sad information is being confirmed,” Peskov said. “There were other fellow citizens there. Bad news today from Washington. We are sorry and send condolences to the families and friends who lost those of our fellow citizens who died in the plane crash.”
The International Skating Union sent a statement saying it was deeply shocked and heartbroken.