Russian skating couple, world champions in 1990s, were on crashed US plane, TASS reports

Russian ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Potomac River in Washington on Wednesday night, Russian state media reported.

Shishkova and Naumov, who were married to each other, won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994 and had reportedly lived in the United States since at least 1998, where they trained young ice skaters.

Their son Maxim, who competed for the United States in singles, was also feared to have been on board the plane, Russia’s TASS and RIA news agencies reported. He had been competing at the U.S. figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas from Jan. 20-26, according to the event’s website.

The couple were reported to have been returning from the competition and travelling with a group of young skaters. Russia’s Mash news outlet published a list of 13 skaters, many of them the children of Russian emigres to the United States, who it said were believed to have been on the plane.

Inna Volyanskaya, a former skater who competed for the Soviet Union, was also reported to have been on board, TASS said. She was a coach at the Washington figure skating club, according to its website.

An American Airlines regional passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the Potomac after a midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night, officials said.