Chicago figure skaters mourn DC plane crash victims they just saw at Kansas competition​on January 31, 2025 at 4:52 am

CHICAGO (WLS) — Some of the victims on the American Eagle flight that crashed into the Potomac River after a midair collision with a U.S. Army helicopter had just attended a figure skating competition in Kansas where they competed against skaters from the Chicago area.

The figure skating community is very small and tight-knit, and now the Chicago area skaters are grieving for the athletes and coaches who lost their lives.

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The mood was somber at Twin Rinks in Buffalo Grove Thursday. Lorenzo Elano of Chicago should have been celebrating the national junior championship he won over the weekend in Wichita, but he was just going through the motions. He and the rest of the skating community are mourning the loss of many of their own in Washington D.C. last night.

“It’s still heartbreaking cuz we see them often and we know about them and it’s just horrible,” he said.

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A number of other skaters who train at Twin Rinks also competed in Wichita, but are now back home. Many of those on the ill-fated flight stayed on for an extra few days to attend a development camp. Jiaying Johnson was close with several of them.

“I was literally talking with some of them before take-off, and it was just a huge shock,” she said.

There were no survivors after a collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington, D.C.

Alexa Gasparatto should also be celebrating landing a rare triple axel in practice, but she is grief stricken. The skating community is like family, she said, and the athletes get to know each other well after spending a huge chunk of their lives at ice rinks.

“I can’t even get the words out,” she said. “There’s just so many thoughts going through my head.”

Coach Jeremy Allen has been around the sport for most of his life and grew up hearing about the tragic plane crash in 1961 that killed members of the U.S. National Team.

“It’s such a tragedy. this is something that’s gonna take a long time or our community to get over,” he said.