Several figure skaters, along with their coaches and families, were traveling on an American Airlines plane that crashed into an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C.

We skated together. We grew up in Saint Petersburg and we skated on the same ice,” said Marina Eltsova, of Leawood. “It’s surreal. ... I know there are videos of what happened. I just did not want to see it.

Jonathan Koziol, a retired Army chief warrant officer with more than 30 years of flight experience, told reporters that the flight was a nighttime qualification flight with an instructor pilot evaluating an experienced pilot on the flight routes that their unit routinely flies day and night around the Potomac River.

A preliminary report of the investigation will be issued in 30 days and a final report is expected within 12-18 months. (Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh and David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski) Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.