D.C. Crash Eerily Similar to 1961 Skating Team Tragedy

Yahoo

30-01-2025

For some in the ice skating community, the plane crash Wednesday outside of Washington D.C. brings back painful memories.
Doug Zeghibe, CEO of The Skating Club of Boston, said the mid-air collision, which killed fourteen members of the ice-skating community, called to mind another tragedy 64 years ago.
On Feb. 15, 1961, all 18 members of the U.S. Figure Skating Team were killed on a flight to the world championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The crash also claimed the lives of 16 coaches, officials, judges and family members.
Decades later, the exact cause of the crash is still inconclusive, with some attributing the incident to mechanical issue, reported CNN.
'I personally feel that this club, the Skating Club of Boston has just now, after 60 years later, been coming out of the shadow of that 1961 crash, so this is particularly devastating,' Zeghibe said during a press conference Thursday.
Zeghibe recalled the crash as the Boston ice skating community mourned the victims of the community killed in Wednesday's disaster.
He confirmed that two teenage figure skaters, their mothers, and two former world champions who were coaching at a historic Boston club were among the victims on the American Airlines flight, which was making its descent to Reagan National Airport shortly before 9 p.m. when it collided with a Blackhawk helicopter
'Almost half of everybody on board that plane were from this club,' said Zeghibe. 'It had long reaching implications for this skating club and for the sport in this country because when you lose coaches like this you lose the future of the sport as well.'
All 64 people on the American Airlines flight and the three soldiers aboard the training Blackhawk helicopter are presumed dead, officials said. It was the deadliest aviation disaster in the country in more than 20 years. The last commercial plane crash in the U.S. was in 2009 when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed during a landing at New York's Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 people onboard. The cause of the crash was attributed to pilot error.
No cause has been released for the crash, but the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.