Ilia Malinin flew to D.C. on Monday after the national championships in Wichita and knew that young skaters were on the plane that crashed Wednesday.
Figure skaters and coaches returning from the U.S. national championships were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter Wednesday.
Coach Alexandr Kirsanov and skaters Angela Yang and Sean Kay were on the plane, Kirsanov's wife, Natalia Gudin confirmed.
"Several members" of the U.S. figure skating community were on American Airlines Flight 5342, according to U.S. Figure Skating.
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships took place Jan. 21-26 in Wichita, Kansas. U.S. Figure Skating did not identify any of the members of its team that were on board. Doug Zeghib
Several members' of the U.S. Figure Skating community were onboard the American Airlines plane that collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter over Washington, D.C., the governing body said in a statement.
In 1961, the entire U.S. figure skating team died in a plane crash. Losing a generation of top-level athletes and their coaches hobbled the U.S. The DCA crash and brought back difficult memories.
U.S. Figure Skating announced that 'several members of our skating community' were on the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Potomac River
Jinna Han was just 13 years old and already turning heads at the Skating Club of Boston when she was killed in the D.C. plane crash.
A Union County native was among those killed in the D.C. plane crash, officials said while offering condolences.
Hope Kovach, a figure skater and coach at Brightspeed Ice Park in Springfield travelled to Wichita, Ks. to see the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.