Boston skating club that lost skaters, coaches in D.C. plane crash suffered similar tragedy in 1961
NORWOOD - For The Skating Club of Boston, which lost six members of its community Wednesday night in the American Airlines plane crash in Washington, D.C., the tragedy is all too familiar.
Sixty-four years ago, the organization was similarly devastated when the entire U.S. figure skating team was killed on Sabena Flight 548, which crashed in Belgium while heading to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in the Czech Republic.
"Almost half of everybody on board that plane were with this club," The Skating Club of Boston's CEO Doug Zeghibe said.
1961 crash that killed skaters had "long-reaching implications"
The 1961 crash killed all 18 members of the team along with 16 officials, judges, coaches and family members.
"It had long-reaching implications for the Skating Club and for the sport in this country," Zeghibe said. "Because when you lose coaches like this, you lose the future of the sport as well. It's been a long time in redeveloping it."
Two of those killed Wednesday were coaches with the Skating Club of Boston, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova. The club also lost 16-year-old skaters Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, as well as Lane's mother Christine Lane and Han's mother Jin Han.
Mass. school named after 1961 crash victim
Maribel Vinson Owen, a Winchester native, was among those killed in the 1961 crash. She was a multi-championship-winning figure skater, Olympic bronze medalist and coach, as well as the first female sportswriter for The New York Times. Her two daughters were figure skaters and also died in the crash.
The Vinson-Owen Elementary School in Winchester is named after the family, and a banner at the school tells students that Maribel Vinson Owen "is considered perhaps the most influential figure skater in the history of the U.S."
A Boston Globe article on the 60th anniversary of the 1961 crash said that out of 34 skaters, coaches, officials and family members on the flight, 10 were from the Boston area.
"The Skating Club of Boston has just now ... been coming out of the shadow of that 1961 crash," Zeghibe said. "So this is particularly devastating."
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