Six members of figure skating group on doomed Washington DC flight are named… with 14 on the plane in total

Six members of the figure skating group who were on board the American Airlines flight that crashed in Washington DC have been named.

It comes amid multiple reports that there were at least 14 people in the party who were on board the fight from Wichita, Kansas. 

Everyone aboard the jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members from Wichita Airport in Kansas that collided with an Army helicopter is feared dead.

Doug Zeghibe, the chief executive and executive director of the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, has announced the names of the six people associated with his club who were on board.

They are: Jinna Han, Jin Han, Spencer Lane, Christine Lane, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova.

It comes after Spencer Lane shared a photo from inside the doomed plane shortly before it crashed.

The 26-year-old uploaded the photo around 7pm ET Wednesday, which appeared to show the jet taxiing on the runway at Wichita Airport 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. 

Other elite members of the American figure skating team who were expected at the next winter Olympics were also onboard the plane, a bombardier CRJ700.

They were returning home to the DC area after attending a National Development Camp for young skaters in Wichita, Kansas.

Russian figure skaters Evgenia Skhiskhkova and Vadim Naumov, who mentored Lane, are also believed to have been on the plane.

Their Team USA figure skater son Maxim 23, was at the Wichita camp although it is unclear if he was also on the fateful flight.

In a statement, Zeghibe said: ‘Our sport and this Club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy. 

‘Skating is a tight-knit community where parents and kids come together 6 or 7 days a week to train and work together. Everyone is like family. 

‘Of the skaters, coaches and parents on the plane, we believe six were from The Skating Club of Boston. We are devastated and completely at a loss for words.

‘These athletes, coaches and parents were returning from U.S. Figure Skating’s National Development Camp, following last week’s U.S. Championships in Wichita. 

‘This camp is for young competitive skaters of tomorrow with the most promise to be a champion of tomorrow. The Club sent 18 athletes to compete at the U.S. Championships. It sent 12 athletes to the national development camp.’

‘We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims´ families closely in our hearts,’ U.S. Figure Skating added in their own statement. 

It comes after a young American figure skater, Jon Maravilla, was saved from the crash after he was barred from boarding the plane because his dog was too big.

Maravilla told RIA Novosti that after he was told he couldn’t bring his dog onboard, he decided to take a car instead.

Another American figure skater, Anton Spiridonov, who was said to be among the victims has revealed he was never on board the flight in the first place.

Spiridonov posted on Instagram on Thursday morning: ‘Russian news outlets have included me on a list of presumed people on the flight from Wichita to Washington D.C.

‘I was not on this flight, thank you for everyone’s concern for my safety. My heart goes out to all the families affected by this tragedy.’

At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the midair collision Wednesday night when the helicopter apparently flew in the path of the jet as it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington.

Crews were still searching for other casualties but did not believe there were any survivors, which would make it the deadliest U.S. air crash in nearly 24 years.

‘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. ‘We don’t believe there are any survivors.’

The body of the plane was found upside down in three sections in waist-deep water. The wreckage of the helicopter was also found. 

Donnelly said first responders on Thursday were searching an area of the Potomac River as far south as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, roughly 3 miles south of the airport.

Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.

Investigators will try to piece together the aircrafts´ final moments before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers as well as a loss of altitude by the passenger jet.

Reagan Airport will reopen at 11am Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced. The FAA previously said it would be closed until 5am Friday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, just sworn in earlier this week, was asked if he could reassure Americans that the United States still has the safest airspace in the world.

‘Can I guarantee the American flying public that the United States has the most safe and secure airspace in the world? And the answer to that is, absolutely yes, we do,’ he said.

The night was clear, the plane and helicopter were both in standard flight patterns and there was standard communication between the aircraft and the tower, Duffy said.

‘We have early indicators of what happened here,’ Duffy said, though he declined to elaborate further pending an investigation.

It was not unusual to have a military aircraft flying the river and an aircraft landing at the airport, he said. Asked if the plane was aware that there was a helicopter in the area, Duffy said he would say that the helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area.

Asked about President Donald Trump suggesting in an overnight social media post that the collision could have been prevented, Duffy said, ‘From what I´ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.’

More to follow.