The Kremlin Thursday confirmed that two well-known Russian-born figure skaters were aboard the D.C.-bound plane that collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River Wednesday evening.
The two skaters, husband-and-wife team Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, were coaches traveling with a delegation of members of the U.S. junior figure skating team flying to Washington after attending a development camp that followed the recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
Officials have not yet released an official death toll or list of victims as they continue to scour the wreckage site along the Potomac shoreline.
U.S. Army officials said three people were on board the Black Hawk helicopter, which was flying out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
The exact cause of the collision is unclear. “We see, unfortunately, that this sad information is confirmed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow Thursday morning
“Our other compatriots were also there,” he said, according to the Tass official news agency. “Bad news from Washington today.”
The married couple won the world pairs figure skating championship in 1994 and competed together in two Winter Olympic Games in the 1990s. They reportedly married in 1995 and moved to the United States three years later.
Their son, Maxim Naumov, competes in men’s singles for the United States. The couple are listed as pairs coaches affiliated with the Skating Club of Boston, according to the club’s website.
U.S. Figure Skating has confirmed that members of the delegation were aboard the plane.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” the Colorado-based organization said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.