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Six people from Boston-area skating club among DC plane crash victims, director says
The Skating Club of Boston lost two young skaters, their mothers, and two highly regarded coaches, its executive director said Thursday.
Two local teenage figure skaters, their mothers, and two decorated skating coaches from the Boston area are reportedly among the 64 people feared dead after an American Airlines jet collided with a U.S. Army helicopter Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Downed Flight:
Doug Zeghibe, executive director of The Skating Club of Boston, identified the skaters as Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, who were on the plane with their mothers, Christine Lane and Jin Han. Also onboard were club coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, a couple who won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships and competed twice in the Olympics.
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Speaking to reporters Thursday, Zeghibe teared up as he described the “horrific tragedy.” He said the flight was carrying skaters, coaches, and their family members returning home from a development camp that followed the the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
“Skating is a very close and tight knit community,” Zeghibe said. “These kids and their parents, they’re here at our facility in Norwood six, sometimes seven days a week. It’s a close, tight bond. And I think for all of us, we have lost family.”
That loss, he said, “will have long-reaching impacts for our skating community.”
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Flight 5342 was approaching the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when it collided mid-air with an Army helicopter around 9 p.m. Wednesday. The aircraft crashed into the Potomac River, and authorities have said they do not believe there were any survivors. Crews have recovered at least 28 bodies so far.
Club remembers teen skaters, coaches
Shishkova and Naumov, who joined The Skating Club of Boston in 2017, were popular with families and had a proven track record of success, Zeghibe said. He described Naumov as an “old-school coach” and “firm disciplinarian” who served as a role model for children. Shishkova, he added, was “incredibly resilient.”
“You couldn’t see Genia and not just break into a smile,” Zeghibe recalled.
The couple’s son, Maxim Naumov, is also a competitive figure skater who placed fourth in the championships. He flew out of Wichita earlier in the week, Zeghibe said.
“Both of his parents were with him while he was competing,” Zeghibe said. “It’s well known [his] mom was always too nervous to watch him skate, but his dad was with him … in the kiss and cry, sharing his great performance.”
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“Once again, Maxim made us all proud,” Shishkova and Naumov wrote in a post on their joint Instagram account Monday, calling his performance “beautiful and emotional.”
Zeghibe described the Lanes and Hans as “wonderful people” who are “very much embedded in our community.”
Spencer Lane “in the best way possible, was a crazy kid,” Zeghibe said, noting the Barrington, Rhode Island, teen was in the process of “rocketing to the top of the sport.” Jinna Han, he added, was “just a wonderful kid” who was “loved by all.”
Spencer Lane’s father, Douglas Lane, told local news station WPRI his son was “a force of nature” and took to figure skating after watching American skater Nathan Chen compete in the Olympics.
“[Spencer] just was, like, a phenom and just loved it,” Douglas Lane told the news outlet. He described Christine Lane as a “beautiful, creative person” who had many different creative talents.
Lane said the loss of his wife and older son is “just devastating,” adding that he and his younger son are “left here to figure out the path forward.”
Figure skating legend Nancy Kerrigan, an alumna of The Skating Club of Boston, spoke to reporters during a visit to the club’s Norwood facility Thursday, per video from WCVB.
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“We’ve been through tragedies before as Americans, as people, and we are strong,” Kerrigan said tearfully, flanked by fellow Olympic skater Tenley Albright. “And I guess it’s how we respond to it, and so my response is to be with people I care about and I love. I needed support, so that’s why I am here.”
Boston-based skating choreographer Adam Blake reflected on the impact to the local skating community in a statement obtained by the Associated Press.
“In this day and age, everybody is so removed from tragedy and so desensitized to it,” Blake said. “But when it’s somebody that you know and when it’s somebody that you love and somebody that you care about, everything becomes more real. A lot of us are in a great deal of pain and a lot of us are in a great deal of disbelief.”
Zeghibe said Wednesday’s incident evokes painful memories of a 1961 plane crash in Belgium that killed all 72 people on board, including the entire U.S. figure skating team and 16 people accompanying the skaters. Several people onboard the 1961 flight were from The Skating Club of Boston, he noted.
“It had long-reaching implications for this skating club, and for the sport in this country, because when you lose coaches like this, you lose the future of the sport as well,” Zeghibe said.
Now, he said, the local skating community has banded together to support those whose loved ones were on Flight 5342.
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“If you look for a silver lining in something this horrible, it’s to see the humanity of how folks come together to support those that were directly affected by that,” he said. “And that really is heartwarming and encouraging.”
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