Members of the US figure skating team and their families, as well as Russian-born former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were aboard the American Airlines jet that collided with a US Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport Wednesday night.
Shishkova and Naumov, who were married, had lived in the United States since the late 1990s, coaching young ice skaters. The team and the couple had been in Kansas, where the flight originated, for a National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Reuters reported.
The couple won the world pairs championship in 1994.
An EarthCam captured the collision of the two aircraft at about 9 p.m. The small regional jet, which was landing, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, while three US service members were aboard the Sikorsky H-60, as CrimeOnline reported. No survivors have been bound.
Crews have been on the Potomac River all night and by Thursday morning had recovered 28 bodies, WRC reported.
“At this point, we don’t believe there are survivors from this accident, and we have recovered 27 people from this plane and one from the helicopter,” said D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly.
Investigators are now looking into what happened, while officials speculate. US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, a former reality show star who served as district attorney of Ashland County, Wisconsin, before being tapped to head the federal department, said there was no communication breakdown but “obviously there was something happened here.”
“You’ll get more information and more details as this investigation moves forward,” he said. “We’ll learn what happened.”
Duffy said that both aircraft were in standard flight patterns.
President Donald Trump appeared to blame the military aircraft for the crash with no evidence. “Why didn’t the helicopter move?” He asked on his Truth Social media platform.
A former National Transportation Safety Board investigator told NBC, however, that there was little room for error around the airport, the closest to Washington, D.C.
“It’s very tight airspace,” Alan Diehl told NBC’s “Early Today”.
All flights were stopped at the airport after the crash, but it is expected to reopen at 11 a.m.
