We’ve woken as much as information of an unlimited tragedy, one by which various members of the U.S. determine skating staff have been on board an American Eagle flight from Wichita, Kan. to Washington, D.C. that crashed right into a navy helicopter on the touchdown descent.
As of seven a.m. at present, no survivors have been recognized.
We’ll know extra within the subsequent few hours about who the skaters and coaches are. So far as we will inform, most members in a developmental determine skating camp being held after the U.S. Determine Skating Championships final weekend.
As such, the staff members weren’t the core of the trouble for the 2026 Olympics in Milan, however may need been a part of the groups competing in 2030 and past. It’s a a lot completely different group from the staff that was misplaced when a Sabena Airways flight crashed in Brussels in February 1961. That group was the senior nationwide staff on its technique to the world championships in Prague, and had been a part of what had been a dominant group of skaters on the planet stage.
A number of years in the past, I wrote about my pal Miriam, who was a part of the U.S. determine skating equipment. She was months away from her departure from the competitors equipment after I first met her, and we grew to become quick dance buddies.
She’s now married and elevating a household, however doing so with nice happiness. She wasn’t on a world staff, however was completed and needed to journey to competitions within the wintertime, generally in hazardous circumstances.
I suppose, in the case of competing in a winter sport, the hazards of long-range journey are painfully apparent. It’s a miracle to me that extra flights involving sports activities figures, like skilled groups, aren’t concerned in additional mishaps.
