At least 30 bodies have been recovered from a Washington DC aircraft collision, including a TikTok skating star and a famed athlete couple.
Figure skater, Spencer Lane, 16, and his mother Christine Lane were confirmed dead on Thursday morning.
Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova, 53, and Vadim Naumov, 56, Jinna Han and her mother Jin Han have also been confirmed dead after a regional passenger jet and the US Army helicopter crashed into the Potomac River after a midair collision.
The plane had been approaching Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night when the crash occurred, officials said.
More than 60 people were onboard and all died, officials said. At least 28 bodies have been recovered, according to DC Fire Chief John Donnelly said.
‘We will work to find all the bodies and reunite them with their loved ones,’ he said at a Thursday press conference.
US figure skating has confirmed that several skaters, coaches and their family members were on board the flight, and had been returning home from the National Development Camp which is held in conjunction with the national championships.
‘We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts. We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available,’ the sport governing body said in a statement.
American figure skater John Maravilla, as reported by RIA Novosti, said: ‘I don’t want to name names, but there were around 14 figure skaters on the plane, not counting their parents and several coaches.’
CBS News reported that a dive team had recovered one of the two data recorders, the so-called black boxes, from the plane.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both the helicopter and the airplane had been flying normal flight patterns. “This was not unusual,” he said.
The Pentagon said it was launching an investigation.
In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump questioned the actions of the helicopter crew and air traffic controllers on what he described as a clear night.
‘This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!,’ he wrote.
Spencer, 16, and Christine Lane
Spencer Lane uploaded the photo around 7pm ET Wednesday, which appeared to show the jet taxiing on the runway at Wichita Airport in Kansas before it took off for its final flight.
He captioned it ICT -> DCA – the codes for Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
His mother, Christine Lane, was confirmed dead, by The Skating Club of Boston.
Evgenia Shishkova, 53, and Vadim Naumov, 56
Shishkova and Vadim Naumov won the World Figure Skating Championship in pairs in 1994.
The married couple was travelling back to DC on Flight 5342 after attending the US Figure Skating Championships in Kansas.
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.’
When asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to offer condolences to US President Donald Trump in a phone call, Peskov said there were no plans for high-level contacts for now.
Ludmila Velikova, who trianed the couple when they were children, called the loss devastating.
‘They were my favorite sports people,’ she told Reuters. ‘They were part of my first attempt at the world championship and became champions in 1994. They were talented and beautiful people.
‘Apart from anything else, they were my children.’
Shishkova started training with Veilkova at the age of 11 and Naumov at 14.
‘What’s happened is awful,’ she said from St. Petersburg. ‘The best people have been taken away from us.’
Veilkova confirmed the pair’s son, Maxim, did safely return to Boston.
Jinna and Jin Han
Skater Jinna Han and her mother Jin were confirmed dead by The Skating Club of Boston.
‘Our sport and this Club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,’ Doug Zeghibe, CEO and Executive Director of the club, said in a statement. ‘Everyone is like family… We are devastated and completely at a loss for word.’
Asra Hussain, 26
Asra Hussain messaged husband Hamaad Raza, 25, to say ‘We are landing in 20 minutes’ as American Eagle Flight 5342 approached Reagan National Airport jut before 8pm ET Wednesday night.
Tragically it was the last text Asra, 26, would ever send.
Her shaken husband of two years Hamza Raza, 25, said he had texted his wife a few replies, but that they’d never been received.
‘She texted me that they were landing in 20 minutes. The rest of my texts didn’t get delivered and that’s when I realized that something might be up,’ a distraught Hamaad said at the airport.
‘I’m just praying that somebody’s pulling her out of the river right now, as we speak. That’s all I can pray for, I’m just praying to God,’ he told WUSA9.
