American Eagle Flight 5342 had 60 passengers and four crew members aboard as the plane collided with an Army helicopter carrying three crew members, a crash with no survivors just outside Reagan National Airport whose horror reverberated across the country.
Among those presumed dead are competitive figure skaters, many of them children who dreamed of making it to the Olympics and their parents who shuttled them to and from skating events to help make those dreams come true.
There was the renowned former Russian Olympic figure skating duo who coached some of those kids. A flight attendant who embraced his life of travel. The helicopter crew chief who had a smile for everyone, especially his infant son.
The crash happened three days after the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships — the most prestigious annual event on the American figure skating calendar — concluded in Wichita, where the American Airlines flight originated.
“This is a terrible tragedy that will unite those in Washington, D.C., and those in Wichita, Kansas, forever,” Wichita Mayor Lily Wu said.
As family members and friends grieve, they also shared memories of the lives they now mourn.
Sarah Lee Best, 33
Sarah Lee Best was an associate at the Wilkinson Stekloff law firm in the D.C. area.
She was a hard worker, but she always found time for kind gestures, said her husband of almost ten years, Daniel Solomon. One Valentine’s Day, she surprised him with an elaborate spread of chocolates, handmade cards, balloons, and candles.
Solomon said they first met at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he teaches classical studies. He said Sarah’s love of classics is what brought them together. For their 10th anniversary, which would have come on Feb. 21, the pair had planned to finally take their honeymoon this May in Hawaii — where Sarah was born.
“We are each other’s world,” Solomon said. “I just can’t honestly imagine going through the rest of my life without her. She really touched the lives of anybody who got to know her.”
Reported by Omari Daniels and Steve Thompson
Kiah Duggins, 30
Kiah Duggins had been visiting her hometown of Wichita out of her devotion to her family, they told KMUW 89.1, NPR’s Wichita affiliate. The 30-year-old civil rights attorney wanted to be with her mother during a surgical procedure.
On Wednesday she was headed back to D.C., where she worked as an attorney for Civil Rights Corps, a nonprofit “dedicated to challenging systemic injustice in the United States’ legal system,” according to its website. Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, a D.C.-founded, Black-led mutual aid and community defense organization, shared a post on Instagram in dedication to Duggins and her work with their organization.
Howard University officials, in a note to faculty and community members after the crash, said Duggins “was set to begin a new chapter” at the university’s law school this fall.
Reported by Hau Chu and Steve Thompson
Ian Epstein, 53
From Charlotte, N.C.
Ian Epstein was one of the flight attendants working aboard American Eagle Flight 5342, according to family members who also described him as a father, stepfather, husband and brother who was “full of life.”
“He loved being a flight attendant because he truly enjoyed traveling and meeting new people,” his sister and former wife wrote in text messages on behalf of the family.
“But his true love was his family.”
Reported by Emma Uber
Jinna Han, 13 and Jin Han, 49
From the Boston area
Jinna Han was an only child who had been skating since she was 4 years old, said Olga Ganicheva, a figure skating coach at the Skating Club of Boston.
Ganicheva said she had worked for years with Jinna, who was on the plane with her mother, Jin Han.
“Jinna was sunshine,” Ganicheva said. “She could make us smile and love every day.”
Jinna and her parents were often at the club 10 hours a day, six days a week, sometimes watching others even on her day off, Ganicheva said.
“Jinna loved it because she could perform,” Ganicheva said. “She could fly. She could jump. She was a star.”
Reported by Dana Hedgpeth and Steve Thompson
Liz Keys, 33
From D.C., grew up in Madeira, Ohio
Liz Keys was an attorney with a sharp sense of humor who played the saxophone, the oboe and the bassoon. She walked on to the sailing team at Tufts University, and lived in D.C. with a 10-pound rescue Yorkie named Tucker and her life partner, David Seidman, whom she met at Georgetown Law School.
She died on her birthday, Seidman said. Keys was an only child to Martin and Mary Keys, whom she often visited.
“She was someone who always, always, managed to have fun,” Seidman said. “No matter what she was doing.”
Keys was returning from a work trip to Wichita and had plans to celebrate with drinks at Maydan, a Northwest D.C. restaurant where her favorite drink was an old-fashioned.
She and Seidman, whose birthday is Sunday, had planned a joint party at a local bar Saturday.
“She pushed everyone, including me, to be the best version of themselves and take risks.” Seidman said.
“It’s hard to imagine the hole that Liz left will ever be filled,” he said. “She was such a star.”
Reported by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
Spencer Lane, 16, and Christine Conrad Lane, 49
From Rhode Island
Christine Conrad Lane and her son Spencer had been chasing his figure skating dreams at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships alongside aspiring young skaters from the Skating Club of Boston. His eyes were set on the Olympics.
Lane’s father described Christine as bright, energetic and creative. She had been a freelance graphic designer and had just gotten her real estate license. She and her husband, Doug Lane, helped drive Spencer an hour each way to a Boston rink to support his figure skating, which he practiced four days a week, his grandparents said in a telephone interview.
Spencer, who also loved aerial arts, fell in love with the sport watching YouTube videos and was working hard to pull off a triple axel, said Wayne Lane, Spencer’s grandfather and Lane’s father.
Lane always wanted to be a mother, her parents said, but medical reasons made pregnancy too dangerous. After years of heartache, Spencer was adopted from Korea when he was 10 months old.
“The stars aligned,” Karen Conrad, his grandmother and Christine’s mother, said of Spencer joining their family. “He was a gift.”
Reported by Olivia George
Ryan O’Hara, 28
From Arlington County
Ryan O’Hara, the crew chief on the Black Hawk helicopter that was part of Wednesday’s crash, was a “wonderful kid” who had a smile for everyone and loved being in the Army, his father said. He had just texted his dad earlier on Wednesday about a new assignment that might bring him, his wife and their 1-year-old son back to Georgia later this year.
“He doted on that boy,” Gary O’Hara, Ryan’s father said.
O’Hara said his son loved working with the soldiers he was stationed with at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia. Night training missions were a regular occurrence and O’Hara said his son never expressed any concerns.
“As a parent, how do you take the news like this and not be totally broken?” said Gary O’Hara, his voice trembling, in a phone interview Thursday. “His mother and I and his sister are just absolutely devastated to think we were talking to him just yesterday and we’ll never have the opportunity to talk with him again.”
Gary O’Hara said the last pictures his son sent him were of a recent trip he took with his baby to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport. They were looking at helicopters.
Reported by Joe Heim
Jesse Pitcher, 30
From Calvert County, Maryland
Jesse Pitcher, who had just spent days on an annual wilderness trip, duck hunting and talking shop with other plumbers, was on his way home to his wife, Kylie.
They got married about a year ago and were building a house together, said his friend and business partner, Charlie Gray. “He was just getting started with life,” his father, Jameson Pitcher, told The New York Times.
Gray said Pitcher always pushed him to be better. He encouraged him to continue his education, earn his journeyman license and spend quality time with his family.
“He was our leader,” Gray said of Pitcher, who started his own plumbing business after being laid off during the pandemic. “We had a small little family.”
Pitcher called Gray around dinnertime Wednesday, just before boarding the plane. It was Gray’s daughter’s birthday, and he wanted to make sure Gray was taking the day off and celebrating with his family.
Reported by Emma Uber
Lori Schrock, 56, and Robert “Bob” Schrock, 58
From Kiowa, Kansas
Ellie Schrock, a junior at Villanova University in Philadelphia, was excited about seeing her parents this week. Robert “Bob” and Lori Schrock were heading from Wichita to Washington on Wednesday. From there they’d travel on to see her.
She knew their flight number: American Airlines 5342. And then came the late-night news: their plane and a military helicopter had collided minutes before landing.
The Schrocks lived in Kiowa, Kansas, about 90 miles southwest of Wichita near the Oklahoma border, where Bob was a farmer. They were traveling with their two cats.
Lori Schrock was 56, her husband 58. “But he would want me to say he was younger,” their daughter said through tears.
Reported by Rick Plumlee
Wendy Jo Shaffer, 35
From Charlotte
Wendy Jo Shaffer, of Charlotte, was a wife and mother of two young children.
A family spokesman, reached by phone, declined extended comment but sent a statement via text: “We are devastated. Words cannot truly express what Wendy Jo meant as a daughter, a sister, a friend, a wife and most importantly, a mother.”
On a GoFundMe page for her family, her friends described Shaffer as “the heart of her family-a loving partner to her husband and a nurturing, joyful mother to her children.”
Shaffer’s husband, Nate, told his friend, Los Angeles-based Fox TV reporter Bill Melugin, that Shaffer was “the best wife, mother, and friend that anyone could ever hope for.”
Reported by Michael Ruane
Evgenia Shishkova, 52, and Vadim Naumov, 55
Originally from Russia, lived in the United States since 1998
Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were married, were renowned former Russian figure skaters who went on to coach young skaters in Boston.
Their son, Maxim Naumov, 23, competed in the men’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships competition in Wichita, finishing fourth, and left Kansas on an earlier flight than his parents.
Shishkova and Naumov won the 1994 world championships, skating for Russia, as well as silver and bronze medals in many other events. Since 1998, they lived in the United States, where they coached young ice skaters, including their son. Naumov was a coach with the U.S. national team, training championship winners and preparing competitors for international competitions. Shishkova was an assistant coach to many U.S. champions.
Reported by Washington Post staff
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Alice Crites, Aaron Schaffer, Razzan Nakhlawi, Erin Cox, Steve Thompson and Ellie Silverman contributed to this report.