Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were aboard the American Airlines passenger jet carrying 64 people that crashed mid-air with an army Black Hawk helicopter and plunged into the Potomac River in Washington on Wednesday night, according to the Kremlin and multiple Russian news outlets.
Shishkova and Naumov, who were married to each other, won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994, and they had lived in the United States since 1998, where they trained young ice skaters.
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There were 60 passengers and four crew members on the American Airlines flight and three soldiers aboard a training flight on the Black Hawk helicopter. There was no immediate confirmed cause of the collision, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet coming from Wichita, Kansas, was making a routine landing when the helicopter flew into its path.
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