On January 30, a flight from Wichita Kansas to Washington DC had a mid-air collision with a military helicopter.
Throughout the first week of January, countless figure skating clubs have had a moment of silence for the promising junior figure skaters, Jinna Han, Spencer Lane, Angela Yang, Sean Kay, Birella Beyer, Olivia Eve Ter, Cory Haynos, Everly and Alydia Livingston and coaches, Evgenia Shishkova, Vadim Naumov, Inna Volyankaya, and, Alexandr Kirsanov that were victims of the tragedy.
These skaters were returning back from a prestigious national developmental camp.
“I followed Spencer across practically all social media platforms and saw many people on the flight competing as juniors. As a beginner figure skater, Spencer was very inspiring considering he got as far in competitions as people who had been competing for four times as long as he had. We are just very shocked to see what this has come to and how quickly someone’s life can be taken. The skating community is very tight-knit and Spencer and Jinna were very well known so many people even those who didn’t know them personally have felt the loss of such hardworking skaters that had so much potential,” Cassie Stuart, Queen City figure skating club member said.
Evgenia Shishkova, and Vadim Naumov who were also on the doomed flight to Washington DC were 1992 and 1994 Olympic figure skaters finishing in the top five both times. The pair retired in 1998 after winning gold in the ISU world figure skating championship in 1994 and completing their set of World medals, winning bronze in 1993 and silver in 1995.
The pair then switched to coaching, they coached many skaters in the United States including their son Maxim who has competed for Team USA.
“It’s really tragic what happened and really unexpected. I had met them at a couple of competitions and they would take time to talk to everybody,” Richard Hartley, a figure skating coach at QCFSC said.
Just a month before the plane crash many skaters were competing at Eastern sectionals, including Spencer Lane who competed in the intermediate men’s division and scored an impressive combined score of 117.04 winning his last gold medal before the crash.
Jinna Han who also competed at Eastern sectionals in the novice division scored a whopping combined score of 139.27 leaving her in fourth place. These scores are tens of points higher than many Olympic skaters further showing how outstanding these two were.
“I watched clips of their programs at eastern sectionals shortly before the crash. Both skaters had amazing triple jumps which are very advanced for their age and division but they both had moving artistry and showmanship. It’s so unfortunate that Spencer never landed his triple axel or quads, he posted attempts on social media\ and came close to both. Everybody was looking forward to seeing how far he would go in the skating world. Either way, his videos were so inspiring and touched a lot of people,” Stuart said.
Pair skating is less common than singles skating especially with younger kids and teens but Angela Yang and Sean Kay were rising Juvenile division ice dance stars. They were head and shoulder above, being completely undefeated in the 2025 season. Shortly before the crash, the two had competed in their very first Midwestern sectionals. Winning with a total score of 95.64 which was nearly 15 points above the pair that made second place. Angela and Sean were the youngest figure skaters among those coming back from the developmental camp both 11 years old.
“These kids were so talented they were so young when they passed, especially Angela and Shaun. All of the figure skaters and coaches on the flight were supposed to be the new generation of top skaters in America and it’s just horrible that they will never be able to reach their full potential and make it as far in skating as they should have,” Nika Bratsuin, a Queen City figure skating club member, said.
Each of the talented skaters and coaches on the flight have impacted and inspired many beginner figure skaters to pursue their dreams and were loved and respected by fans all over the world.