LAKEWOOD, Ohio — The figure skating community in Northeast Ohio is grappling with the devastating loss of several friends following a deadly crash at the Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia airport Wednesday night.
By Thursday, at least 28 bodies had been recovered from the Potomac River after a mid-air collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Kansas. All 67 people on board both aircraft were killed.
Reports suggest the helicopter flew directly into the path of the plane as it was descending for landing, despite the pilot acknowledging the approaching jet.
Some of the victims on the flight were returning from a figure skating event in Kansas. One local skater was also on the same trip but had taken a different flight home.
When you get into figure skating, you don’t just form a bond with the ice—you form lasting connections with others who share the same passion.
"You know, we're all a family. I think we all have met each other and travel together and see each other at competitions,” said Tonia Kwiatkowski, a coach, national silver medalist, three-time world team member and Olympic alternate (1998).
Kwiatkowski said that at Winterhurst Ice Arena in Lakewood, people were hurting following the news of the tragic plane crash.
“I started to tear up because it is so horrifying that this happened and to just so many just coming from the national development camp, national championships in Kansas,” Kwiatkowski said.
It was a trip Kwiatkowski almost went on as coach, but another coach went instead.
After hearing the news, she was concerned about one of her Lakewood students who was present at the camp. Thankfully, he’d taken a different flight but lost friends on that American Airlines plane.
“I know this is going to be hard for him, and we're here to support him moving forward for sure. Realization of some of these friends of his that he just spent some time with, passing away,” Kwiatkowski said.
She lost friends, too.
“How tragic for the skating community to lose the 1994 pairs world champions, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov,” said Kwiatkowski.
“When I woke up around six this morning, I saw the news, and I instantly started sobbing,’ said Victoria Harmon, the Vice President of Winterhurst Figure Skating Club.
“Some of the young skaters reached out directly to me and said, 'A lot of my friends have passed. A lot of my friends are dead,' and this is coming from 12-year-old girls,” Harmon said.
As Harmon and Kwiatkowski grieve as well, their priority is making sure each child has the support they need to heal.
“This is a very heartbreaking thing, because this is for some of our children, their first brush of grief and in understanding what grieving is,” Harmon said.
They do have a therapist on staff. Harmon said they are working on future fundraising and community events surrounding the crash.
