U.S. Figure Skating says several members of "our skating community" were aboard American Airlines

[elleng]

Flight 5342 that crashed into the Potomac River ─ including athletes, coaches and family members.

[CentralMass]

1. 😞

[Raine]

2. Oh no ... 😪 💔

[elleng]

3. ;-(

[kozar]

4. Just woke to this story,

Thanks for update Ellen.

Koz

[eShirl]

5. World champion Russian figure skaters confirmed as being on board crashed US plane

"Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on American Airlines plane that crashed near Washington DC as US Figure Skating says athletes and coaches among passengers" https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jan/30/evgenia-shishkova-vadim-naumov-american-airlines-plane-crash-washington-figure-skaters

[nitpicked]

6. Also clarification on US skaters

(snip)
The governing body for figure skating in the United States confirmed that athletes, coaches and family members were returning from the national development camp held in conjunction with the US championships in Kansas.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” it said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.” A source told Reuters that as many as 15 people on the flight may have been involved in figure skating. Officials have not said how many people died in the accident but have suggested that there may be no survivors.
(snip)

[IcyPeas]

7. Oh man

This is going to be so devastating to other skaters and families and that community.

[whopis01]

11. They absolutely do have to follow ATC

when operating in a controlled airspace. And that area would certainly be co trolled airspace operated by the tower at Reagan National.

[Shrek]

15. Saw some speculation on Twitter

Apparently there was another aircraft departing and the helicopter pilot may have thought that's the one ATC was warning him about.

He may have had that one in sight and didn't know there was another one on approach that was danger close.

[Ocelot II]

13. Never call that airport "Reagan National." It's DCA.

Reagan is the asshole who fired all the air traffic controllers in 1981 and it took years for the numbers to recover. ATC hates that name and it's still DCA or just "National" to them.

[elleng]

20. Right, a/k/a NATIONAL.

[obamanut2012]

17. ATC did tell them whst to do

It's all on the tower recording. The helio obviously had horrible pilot error

[obamanut2012]

22. They turn them off in that area because of teh high traffic

The Aviation subreddit on Reddit has loads of good info -- from teh first it happened last night. Many ATC, pilots, etc.

[obamanut2012]

24. That subreddit was a goldmine of factual info last night

[elleng]

21. Thought so, was a 'training' flight/mission.

[LeftInTX]

9. The DC area coach, Inna Volyanskaya was on board

Russians are releasing names of those on the flight.

[mgardener]

10. A number of US figure skaters were killed in a 1961

Plane crash in Prague

https://www.usfigureskating.org/news/article/filling-void-memories-lost-friends-still-vivid-ludingtons

https://www.today.com/news/remembering-1961-us-figure-skating-world-team-plane-crash-t208568

[obamanut2012]

14. The first thing I thought of last night

[Bookreadingliberal53]

16. Those skaters were in the age ranges of 11-15 nt

[mzmolly]

19. Oh no.

[Srkdqltr]

26. Devastating awful. These things are awful.