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Russian skating couple, world champions in 1990s, were on crashed US airplane, TASS reports

Russian ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Potomac River in Washington on Wednesday night, Russian state media reported.

Shishkova and Naumov, who were married to each other, won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994 and had actually apparently resided in the United States given that a minimum of 1998, where they trained young ice skaters.

Their son Maxim, who competed for the United States in singles, was likewise feared to have actually been on board the airplane, Russia's TASS and RIA news agencies reported. He had been completing at the U.S. figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas from Jan. 20-26, according to the event's website.

The couple were reported to have been returning from the competition and travelling with a group of young skaters. Russia's Mash news outlet published a list of 13 skaters, much of them the children of Russian emigres to the United States, who it said were thought to have been on the aircraft.

Inna Volyanskaya, a previous skater who competed for the Soviet Union, was also reported to have actually been on board, TASS said. She was a coach at the Washington figure skating club, according to its site.

An American Airlines local traveler jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the Potomac after a midair crash near Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night, authorities said.

(source: Reuters)