Skaters Evgenia Shishkova & Vadim Naumov among the passengers of DC Plane Crash

Washington (AP) – Passengers on board The American Airlines flight This collided with an army helicopter and crashed into the icy waters of the Potomac river included artistic skaters returning from the American craft skating championships and two of their Russian coaches.

On Wednesday, there were 60 passengers and four crew members on the flight of American Airlines and three soldiers aboard the training flight on the Blackhawk helicopter. The hope of saving the survivors evaporated by Daybreak.

“We are now to the point where we are moving from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donelly, chief of the national capital, Thursday morning. “We don’t think there are survivors.”

Donelly said he was convinced that the leftovers of people killed in the accident will be recovered, but that can take some time.

American skiling has declared in a statement that several skaters, coaches and family members were on commercial flight after attending a development camp that followed the championships that ended on Sunday in Wichita, Kansas.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and closely hold the families of the victims in our hearts,” American figure skating in a statement.

Two of these coaches were identified by the Kremlin as a Russian couple who was world champion 30 years ago.

This is not the first time that the community of American artistic skating rinks has been shaken by an air tragedy. The American team of 18 members who was to participate in the 1961 world championships in Prague died when Sabena Flight 548 crashed on February 15, 1961 in Berg-Kampenhout, about 45 minutes outside Brussels. Six American coaches and four American skating managers, as well as some family members.

American Airlines has set up a hotline as well as centers in Washington and Wichita for people looking for family members who could have been on Wednesday flight.

Here are the passengers identified in the accident on Wednesday evening so far:

___

Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naunov

Shishkova and Naumov won the title of pairs at the 1994 World Championships in Chiba, Japan. They participated twice in the Olympic Games.

The Boston skating club lists them as coaches. Their son, Maxim Naumov, is a competitive artistic skater for the United States

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Shishkova and Naumov were on the plane.

“Unfortunately, we see that this sad information is confirmed,” said Peskov. “There were other fellow citizens there. Bad news today of Washington. We are sorry and send condolences to families and friends who have lost those of our fellow citizens who died in the plane crash. »»

The International Skating Union sent a statement saying that it was deeply shocked and the heart broken.