Emotions Pour From Tight-knit Skating Community Following Dc Plane Crash Carrying Athletes, Coaches

The tight-knit figure skating community was rocked Wednesday when an American Airlines flight carrying athletes, parents and coaches from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River.

Sixty passengers and four crew members on the flight, along with three soldiers aboard the Blackhawk helicopter, are presumed dead. Among those killed were young skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, their mothers and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, all of them representing the prestigious Skating Club of Boston.

The accident was an eerie reminder of the 1961 plane crash that killed the U.S. delegation en route to the world championships in Prague. Many of the top skaters on that team, including sisters Laurie and Maribel Owen, were from the Boston club.

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"I'm in complete shock. I'm sorry, I don't even know what to say. Young skaters, coaches, parents, so many bright lights in our community. My heart goes out to the victims and their loved ones." - two-time and reigning U.S. champion Amber Glenn.