World champion skaters, a consultant who just moved to the D.C. area, a crew chief who was a new dad, champion figure skating coaches and rising skating stars were among those killed in the midair collision between an American Airlines plane and an Army helicopter over Washington, D.C.
Sixty passengers and four Charlotte-based crew members were on American Eagle flight 5342, en route from Wichita, Kansas, and three crew members were aboard the Black Hawk helicopter when they collided Wednesday night, Jan. 29.
Investigators are still working to learn what went wrong on a clear evening when the passenger plane was just a few hundred feet from landing at Reagan Washington National Airport. Officials said there were no survivors — and details about the 67 victims began to emerge.
The passengers included several young figure skaters chasing their dream of becoming world-class competitors. The athletes were returning from the National Development Camp, which was held in connection with the recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. The Skating Club of Boston confirmed they lost six people in the deadly crash, including two rising stars in the figure skating world, their mothers, and two star coaches.
Spencer Lane and Christine Lane
Skating phenom Spencer Lane, 16, and his mom Christine Lane were on their way home to Rhode Island from the development camp.
The Skating Club of Boston
Douglas Lane spoke to Rhode Island station WPRI after the crash that claimed his wife and son, and called Spencer a “force of nature.”
“In his home club in Boston, he was just loved by everyone from the adults running to club to the smallest skaters to the people that are competing for a shot at the Olympics, they all just adored him,” he said.
He described his wife Christine as a creative person with a passion for graphic design and photography.
“For Christine, just the amount of people from the community in Rhode Island I’ve already heard from today that she’s touched,” he said. “Whether it was screening them to adopt the dog that they loved or helping them with a summer project or whatever, she was just one of those people that could just kind of plug in anywhere, connect with people and build a real bond.”
Jinna Han and Jin Han
Another skater from the Boston club,13-year-old Jinna Han, was killed in the crash along with her mother, Jin. They were from Mansfield, Massachusetts, CBS News Boston reported.
The Skating Club of Boston
Jinna had also been participating in the National Development Camp, an invitation-only event that brings together promising young athletes for training sessions led by some of the sport’s biggest names.
“Jinna, just a wonderful kid. Wonderful parents. Great competitor. Loved by all,” said Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to forget them. That is for certain. How we commemorate them here we haven’t gotten to that point to discuss, but we certainly will. Just definitely very important and well loved members of our community,” he said.
Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova
Star coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were also returning from the development camp. The Russian-born pair — who won the 1994 World Figure Skating Championship — had been coaching at the Skating Club of Boston.
They also competed in the Olympics twice — in 1992 in Albertville, France, where they placed fifth, and in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway, where they finished fourth.
Chris Cole/ALLSPORT/Getty Images
The couple’s 23-year-old son, Maxim Naumov, currently competes with Team USA. Zeghibe said Max had finished fourth in the senior men’s event in Wichita and returned home on Monday with Zeghibe.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement Thursday.
Alexandr Kirsanov
A coach from the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club, Alexandr Kirsanov, 46, was confirmed as a victim of the crash, according to the University of Delaware and Kirsanov’s employer, Black Bear Sports Group. He was also traveling back from the development camp.
“In his many years with Ice World, Sasha coached, mentored, and made such an incredible impact not only on our young skaters but on so many who knew and loved him,” Black Bear Sports Group founder and CEO Murry Gunty said in a statement.
Olivia Ter
Olivia Ter, 12, a youth figure skater from Prince George’s County, Maryland, was aboard the flight at the time of the crash, according to the county’s Parks and Recreation Department, CBS News Baltimore reported. She was returning with other skaters from the National Development Camp and aspired to qualify for a spot on Team USA in the world championships.
“The impact of Olivia’s life will continue to resonate in our youth sports community, and she will be sorely missed,” said Bill Tyler, the director of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission for the Prince George’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
Asra Hussain Raza
Asra Hussain Raza was 26 years old and had recently moved to the Washington, D.C., area with her husband for a consulting job. She was flying home from a work trip to Kansas, her father-in-law, Hashim Raza, told CBS News.
She was a graduate of the University of Indiana and Columbia University, her father-in-law said.
Kiah Duggins
Howard University law professor Kiah Duggins was killed in the crash, university president Ben Vison confirmed Friday, CBS News Baltimore reported.
Duggins was also a civil rights attorney with the nonprofit Civil Rights Corps, according to a profile on the organization’s website.
She earned her bachelor’s from Wichita State University and won the Miss Agusta and the Miss Bulter County beauty pageants in 2014 and 2015, making it to the top 10 finalists in the Miss Kansas pageants those years, according to the executive director of the Miss Kansas Organization.
Ryan O’Hara
Ryan O’Hara, 29, was the crew chief on the Black Hawk helicopter. He grew up in the Atlanta area and was a new father, leaving behind a wife and 1-year-old baby boy.
His father, Gary O’Hara, told CBS News that Ryan joined his high school’s ROTC as a cadet and enlisted when he was 18, specifically choosing the Army because it offered him the opportunity to work on Black Hawk helicopters.
After a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he was assigned to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, just outside the nation’s capital.
“I was worried when he was in Afghanistan,” his father said in an emotional interview. “You let your guard down … when he’s on American soil.”
He described the crew of the Black Hawk as “probably the most respected pilots that Ryan had ever flown with.”
“He trusted them with his life,” Gary O’Hara said.
He said he began to worry immediately after seeing news of the crash.
“My wife was like, ‘No, it’s not him,'” he said. “But my heart just broke.”
Elizabeth Anne Keys
Elizabeth Anne Keys, a 33-year-old woman from Cincinnati, was a graduate of Tufts University and Georgetown University Law Center, CBS affiliate WKRC reported. Keys was valedictorian of her class at Madeira High School in Cincinnati in 2010.
“She was just such an outstanding student, outstanding young lady, just the kind of person that we need many, many more of,” former Madeira principal Ray Spicher told the station. “What a quality young lady she was, a leader around school, involved in all kinds of activities.”
Four local union members
The plane crash victims included four members of the Steamfitters Local 602 union, which represents workers in heating, air conditioning, refrigeration and process piping industries in the D.C. metro area.
The union did not release their names, but said in a statement, “Our focus now is on providing support and care to the families of our Brothers. … We will share more details as they becomes available, including a nationwide UA relief effort for the families. These members will be forever in our hearts, and may God bless them and their loved ones.”
This story will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.
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Faris Tanyos and
contributed to this report.
