After attending the US Figure Skating Championships in Kansas, married couple Evgenia Shishkova, 53, and Vadim Naumov, 56, were returning to Washington, D.C. aboard Flight 5342.
They didn’t go with their 23-year-old son, Maxim Naumov, a famous skater for Team USA. He left Wichita on Monday, according to a buddy.
According to a Moscow article, Maxim finished fourth in a tournament a few days prior to the tragedy, and Evgenia and Vadim told him they were “proud” of him.
In a social media post, Russia’s oldest newspaper, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, highlighted the couple’s joy in Maxim.
After finishing eighth in the short program at the Nationals, he rose to the podium. The outcome of teamwork is this exquisite and moving performance. Maxim has merited his spot on the four continents’ winning squad.
Some skaters, coaches, and their families were on the flight, according to US figure skating, coming home from the National Development Camp held during the national finals.
We have deep sympathy for the families of the victims and are heartbroken by this unimaginable tragedy. The sport governing body issued a statement saying, “We will keep an eye on the situation and will provide more information as it becomes available.”
“I will not say any names, but there were about 14 figure skaters on the plane, not including their parents and some coaches,” American figure skater John Maravilla told RIA Novosti.
Officials said Wednesday night as the airliner was preparing to land at Reagan Washington National Airport, a regional passenger flight and a US Army chopper collided in midair and fell into the Potomac River.
According to American Airlines, the aircraft had four crew members and sixty passengers.
Leningrad is where Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were born. In 1994, they won the World Championship while skating together in pairs for the Russian and USSR national teams.
In 1998, they traveled to the United States and became coaches.
According to reports, the couple was traveling with a group of young skaters after returning from the competition.
According to reports, Maxim, who finished fourth in the Wichita race, departed Kansas on Monday with American figure skater Anton Spiridonov.
The flight did not include me. “I believe there were people I knew,” Spiridonov remarked. Maxim Naumov left Wichita on Monday, so he wasn’t on board.
“He was with me at the airport, going through security simultaneously.”
However, Spiridonov stated that Maxim’s parents concurred.
On Maxim and his parents’ social media accounts today, skating enthusiasts posted heartfelt remarks.
“I want to thank my parents and my sister who opened the door [to figure skating],” Maxim, who was trained by his parents, once remarked.
“We are devastated to hear that figure skaters, along with their families, friends, and coaches, are believed to have been among those on board,” the International Skating Union said in a statement regarding the accident today.
We are thinking about everyone who has been impacted by this tragedy. We are a close-knit family and figure skating is more than just a sport.
According to reports, there may have been as many as 15 figure skaters on the flight.
A list of 13 skaters was released by Russia’s Mash news outlet; several of them are the offspring of Russian immigrants to the US. They stated that they believed these skaters were on the aircraft.
Inna Volyanskaya, a former Soviet skater, was also on board, according to TASS. According to the Washington figure skating club’s website, she was a teacher there.
There were no active Russian figure skaters aboard Flight 5342, according to Olga Yermolina, a spokesman for the Russian figure skating association, who talked to Zvezda.
Yermolina stated, “We must wait for the official lists.”
“These individuals, who currently hold US citizenship, previously played or trained with the USSR or Russian national team and have other passports.”
The source claims that the helicopter is overturned and unsafe, and that the plane has broken in half and is in roughly seven feet of water.
Rescuers are seen in boats near what appears to be a piece of an airplane’s body and a wing protruding from the river in photos taken at the scene.
While preparing to land on Runway 33, a Bombardier CRJ700 airplane collided with a Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.
The Black Hawk was an Army chopper carrying three soldiers on a training trip, according to defense sources.
