US and Russian figure skaters were reportedly on crashed plane

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US and Russian figure skaters were reportedly on crashed plane

US and Russian figure skaters were reportedly among the passengers on board an aeroplane that hit a helicopter above Washington DC on Wednesday evening.

“Several” athletes, coaches and family members involved with US Figure Skating were on the flight, the sport’s US governing body said in a statement.

Russian citizens were also on board, the Kremlin confirmed – after local media reported that ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on the plane.

US officials have not provided a number of casualties, although a law enforcement source told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that at least 19 bodies had been recovered from the icy cold Potomac River.

The plane was carrying 64 passengers and crew when it collided in mid-air with a US Army helicopter just after 21:00 local time on Wednesday (02:00 GMT), and then fell into the water.

As many as 15 people on the flight may have been involved in figure skating, an unnamed source told the Reuters news agency.

The statement from US Figure Skating confirmed that “several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342”.

The group were returning home from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, the statement added.

Wichita hosted the US National Figure Skating championships from 20 January to 26 January. Following the competition, there was a development camp for young skaters.

It has not been confirmed whether or not the former Russian skaters were at the same event.

Without specifying names, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the “sad information” that Russian citizens were on the flight – following Russian news agency reports that named Shishkova and Naumov.

The married couple are retired Russian pairs skaters who won the world championships in 1994. They also competed at the Olympics. They now work as coaches in the US.

Inna Volyanskaya, a former skater for the Soviet Union, was also on board the flight, according to Russian news agency Tass.

Rescue teams are continuing to search the freezing waters of the Potomac River where the remnants of both aircrafts remain.

Nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has grounded all flights.

Besides the undisclosed number of individuals associated with US figure skating and the two Russian figure skaters, there is limited information about the individuals on board.

In 1961, the 18-person US figure skating team was killed in a plane ****** in Belgium on their way to Prague.

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