Skating Club of Boston mourns 6 members killed in US flight crash

Global figure skating's tight-knit community was in mourning on Thursday after a passenger jet crash in Washington killed two former world champion coaches and young stars from the next generation of top US talent.

Former Russian world pairs champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov and as many as 14 young American skaters perished when a plane collided midair with a US Army helicopter on Wednesday night above the US capital.

A spokeswoman from the Russian Foreign Ministry also confirmed that the Russian figure skating couple and Vadim Naumov, world champions in 1994, died in the Washington plane crash, as well as Inna Volyanskaya, who competed for the Soviet Union.