The Russian Embassy in Washington DC is currently trying to establish how many Russian citizens, if any, were onboard American Airlines flight 5342 that operated last night from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington DC and crashed after colliding with a US military helicopter.
Russian TASS news agency, citing its sources, alleged that the crashed plane was carrying Russian national team members Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, world champions in pairs figure skating.
According to news sources from Wichita and Russia, at least 14 figure skaters were on the plane. They were returning from the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
Russian sports agent Ari Zakaryan told Match TV that “representatives of the Russian figure skating school” could have been on board the plane.

Most of the skaters flying from Kansas were children of Russian immigrants.
Rescue services reported that there were no survivors in the plane crash.
Preliminary assumptions are that the cause of the tragedy is the dispatcher’s error in not instructing the helicopter crew to change altitude.