Russian figure skating athletes were reportedly onboard the American Airlines jet that crashed with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington DC on Jan. 29.
On Wednesday evening, American Eagle Flight 5342, with 60 passengers and four crew onboard, collided mid-air with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Washington DC as it approached the airport, resulting in both aircraft crashing into the river.
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Russian media Mash said the flight hosted figure skaters who just participated in a figure skating championship in Wichita, Kansas, from where the plane departed.
Mash later published a list of figure skaters – including what it called “children of Russian emigrants” – who might have been on the plane, the authenticity of which cannot be independently verified by Kyiv Post.
Former Russian figure skating champions and winners of the 1994 World Championships, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were also onboard the plane, sources told Russian state media TASS.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later confirmed that former Russian figure skaters were on the plane without naming Shishkova and Naumov, another TASS report said.
“Unfortunately, we see that these sad data are confirmed… There were other fellow citizens of ours there too. Bad news from Washington today,” Peskov told reporters. Peskov later added that there are no plans for a call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the incident.
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Rescue is ongoing and 18 bodies have been recovered as of Thursday morning, but the exact casualties are unclear.
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