WASHINGTON, January 30. /TASS/. Eight figure skaters and four coaches are preliminarily believed to have been on board the plane that crashed in Washington, D.C., a source told TASS.
"According to preliminary reports, skaters Spencer Lane, Gina Khan, Edward Zhou, sisters Everly and Alydia Livingston, Franco Aparicio, Sean Kay, Angela Yang, as well as coaches Vadim Naumov, Eugenia Shishkova, Inna Volyanskaya and another ice dance coach were on board the plane," the agency source said.
An American Airlines passenger plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair near Reagan National Airport at about 9:00 p.m. local time on January 29 (2:00 a.m. GMT on January 30). The passenger plane traveling from Wichita, Kansas was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, and there were at least three US Army soldiers on board the military chopper. The jetliner split apart and came to rest in the Potomac River. Rescue and search efforts are ongoing. At least 19 bodies have been recovered from the river, and it is still uncertain if there are survivors, CNN reported.