Last night, American Eagle flight 5342 from Wichita, KS, was approaching the runway at Reagan National Airport (DCA) near Washington, DC, when a Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter on a training flight collided into the plane. The plane broke into two pieces upon impact and both the plane and the helicopter crashed into the Potomac River.
The helicopter was from Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion out of Davison Army Airfield in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at the press conference that the Black Hawk helicopter was in a “standard flight pattern” at the time of the collision and was aware there was a passenger plane in the immediate vicinity. The American Airlines plane was a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet (a small commuter plane) carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. The Black Hawk was carrying three people: a captain, a chief warrant officer 2, and a staff sergeant. There were no survivors.
Early this morning, rescuers reported that 28 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage. Of those, 27 were from the American Eagle civilian jet and one was from the U.S. Black Hawk helicopter.
Multiple skaters, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said that six victims of last night’s tragedy were affiliated with Skating Club of Boston: two coaches, two skaters, and their two mothers. The two Massachusetts-based skaters were identified as Spencer Lane (17) and Jinna Han (12) and their moms, Molly Lane and Jin Han.
Alexandr “Sasha” Kirsanov (46) was an ice dancer who competed for the United States, Azerbaijan, and Russia. After retiring from competition in 2004, he worked as a coach and choreographer in Delaware.
Figure skater Brielle Beyer (12) and her mother, Justyna Magdalena Beyer (42), from Aldie, Virginia, were also on the flight. Brielle skated at the Skating Club of Northern Virginia and celebrated her 12th birthday two weeks ago.
Olivia Eve Ter (12) from Prince George’s County, Maryland, was one of the four elite youth skaters from the D.C. region to attend the U.S. Figure Skating training camp in Wichita, Kansas, this week.
1994 world champions in pairs figure skating, Evgenia Shishkova, 57, and Vadim Naumov, 55, were worked as national team coaches for Russia. They coached at the Skating Club of Boston. Their son, Maxim Naumov, is a competitive figure skater for the United States but was not on the flight.
Inna Volyanskaya (59) was a Russian pairs skater who competed with Valery Spiridonov in the 1980s. After retiring from competition, she began coaching at Ashburn Ice House in Virginia. After the crash, her former skating partner/ex-husband Valery Spiridonov and Anton Spiridonov (Valery’s son with his second wife) confirmed that they were not on the flight, despite reports to the contrary.
Figure skaters Everly (14) and Alydia (11) Livingston of the Washington Figure Skating Club and their parents Peter and Donna were also returning from the national development camp in Wichita.
Eddie Zhou (16) was from the Skating Club of Northern Virginia.
Franco Aparicio Washington Figure Skating Club and his father Luciano were both on the flight.
Angela Yang (11) and her skating partner Sean Kay (11) from the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club and both of their mothers, Lily Yang and Julie Kay were on the flight.
Cory Haynos from the Skating Club of Northern Virginia and parents Stephanie and Roger were on the flight. They are survived by Cory’s sister Emily, a college student.
Brielle, Eddie, and Cory were all coached by former Swedish national medalists Kalle Strid and Mikael Olaffson
Other crash victims who have been identified:
Jonathan Campos was the pilot and had worked at American Eagle for six years. He was a native of Brooklyn and lived in Ormond Beach, Florida. He studied at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Samuel Lilley (28) was serving as First Officer and had been with American Eagle for two years. He was a native of Richmond Hill, Georgia, and graduated from Georgia Southern University.
Ian Epstein was a flight attendant on the plane.
Danasia Brown was a flight attendant on the plane.
Mikey Stovall was aboard the flight with seven friends. They were returning from an annual duck hunting trip in Kansas. Mikey, a Maryland native, worked as a steamfitter and was part of Steamfitters UA Local 602. The union had announced it lost four members in the crash, but did not release names. Mikey was married to his wife for 14 years and they had an 11 year old son.
Asra Hussain was a consultant who was returning from a business trip in Wichita. Her husband Hamaad said he had been texting with her throughout the flight and then his messages stopped going through. They met in college and had been married for two years.
Kiah Duggins had been hired to start as a professor at the Howard University School of Law in the fall. She most recently worked at the Civil Rights Corp, where she litigated “on behalf of movements challenging unconstitutional policing and money bail practices in Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Duggins was a graduate of Harvard Law School and earned bachelor’s degrees at Wichita State. Her Civil Rights Corps profile said she enjoyed international travel, dancing and “asking about people’s daily magical moments.”
Casey Crafton was a father of three sons and a volunteer youth soccer coach from Salem, Connecticut.
Three students and six parents from schools of Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia were aboard the flight. Two passengers were attorneys from the D.C. law firm of Wilkinson Stekloff. Another passenger was a civil rights attorney. A colonel of the Philippine National Police was among the fatalities. Two Chinese nationals were also on board the aircraft.
The US military released the identities of two of the three soldiers on the Black Hawk: the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer-2 Andrew Eaves from Noxubee County, Mississippi,and the crew chief, Ryan O’Hara, 29, from Gwinnett County, Georgia.
ETA: the most updated list of names I have found is here.
