American and Russian artistic skaters were aboard the star plane

Several figures skaters, including six people associated with Boston’s figurative skating club, were among the passengers aboard a plane that hit a helicopter on Washington DC on Wednesday night.

The Boston group includes two former Russian world champions who are now coaches, Yevenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, as well as two young skaters and their mothers, said the club’s CEO to local media.

“Several” athletes, coaches and relatives involved with the artisanal skating of the United States were on the flight, said the sports governing body. He has not yet given more names.

American officials say they do not expect survivors of the accident. They say that at least 28 bodies have been recovered from the scene.

The plane transported 64 passengers and crew when it crashed into the air with a helicopter of the US Army.

Up to 15 people on the flight may have been involved in the skating of figures in total, said an unidentified source to the Reuters news agency.

Boston -affiliated skaters were identified as Spencer Lane, 16 years old and Jinna Hahn by Boston’s figurative skating club.

Lane’s mother, Christine Lane, and Hahn’s mother, Jin Hahn, were also on the plane, as well as coaches Naumov and Shishkova.

“Six is ​​a horrible number for us,” said the CEO of the club, Doug Zeghibe, to local media, going to say: “This will have a lot of time, reaching impacts for our skating community.”

Earlier on Thursday, Russia confirmed that some of its citizens had been on the plane, after Russia Media reported the names of Naumov and Shishkova.

In his own statement, the American artistic skating said that “several members of our skating community were sadly aboard the 5342 flight of American Airlines.” The group returned home from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, the statement added.

Wichita was the host of the National Figurative Skating Championship from the United States from January 20 to January 26. After the competition, there was a development camp for young skaters.

Shishkova and Naumov are skaters of Russian retired couples who won the World Championship in 1994. They also competed in the Olympic Games, and then began their career as a coach in the United States.

Inna Volyanskaya, a former skull of the Soviet Union, was also aboard the flight, according to the Russian news agency Tass.

The rescue teams continue to search in the frozen waters of the Potomac River, where the remains of both aircraft remain. On Thursday morning, the authorities said they had changed to a recovery operation.

The nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport founded all flights following the accident on Wednesday night.

In addition to the total unleashed number of skaters, limited information about people on board has emerged.

In 1961, the American artistic skating team of 18 people was killed in a plane crash in Belgium on its way to Prague.