The figure skating community is a tight one, and local skaters were rocked by the deaths of their fellow athletes.
Of the 60 passengers aboard the plane that crashed into an Army helicopter in Washington, D.C. last week, more than a dozen were youth figure skaters ages 11 to 16 and their parents and coaches.
“The figure skating community is very small. Every single skater that passed or coach that was on that flight had some connection with somebody at our facility,” said Jennifer Kane, staff coach and vice president of the Palm Beach Figure Skating Club.
The club, which skates out of Palm Beach Skate Zone in Lake Worth, took part in a nationwide moment of silence on Monday afternoon. Students, coaches and family members were invited to bring flowers and battery-operated candles to leave on the ice for a two-minute moment of silence. The PBFSC also created a plaque for skaters to sign to send to the clubs that lost members in the crash—ION Figure Skating Club, the Skating Club of Boston, Skating Club of Northern Virginia, University of Delaware Figure Skating Club, and the Washington Figure Skating Club.
Kane shared that many of the skaters had competed with the kids on the flight in the past, and two staff coaches were very close to coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. One PBFSC skater was actually at the skating camp and had photos with four of the girls who were killed. A PBFSC coach said goodbye to all the skaters at the Wichita airport before he took off on his own flight to Fort Lauderdale.
After a North Carolina figure skating club shared their plan for a vigil, hundreds of clubs across the country followed suit.
“We gathered on the ice with all the skaters with candles and flowers and did a couple minutes of silence, just honoring them and speaking some words,” Kane said. “I think it helped to bring not necessarily closure but just a peace that allowed us to pay our respects and acknowledge and honor and lift up the families.”
Sixty passengers and four crew members aboard the American Eagle Flight 5342, flying into Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. from Wichita, Kansas, were killed when the plane collided with a Black Hawk Army helicopter. The three pilots aboard the helicopter were also killed. Investigations are underway to find out what happened.
