every day started. and the same with their with their parents. they were there for them every day and they were supporting us as well. >> so misha, tell us about the two coaches who were lost. um, evgenia shishkova and vadim naumov. they are in their own right. legendary skaters. what does that loss mean to your community? >> uh. we lost. >> parents. >> they were like. >> parents to the rink. >> they. >> their students were like their kids. >> they devoted. >> their lives. >> to their sport, to this sport. they absolutely loved this sport. and to to lose them is. >> it's like losing your parents. that's the best. >> way. >> to put it. >> they were unbelievable skaters. unbelievable

for watching newsnight. cnn's coverage continues with laura coates right now. >> an urgent search for answers. >> crash, crash, crash. this is where three. >> the deadliest plane crash on american soil in nearly 24 years. >> 67 people are presumed dead. >> a desperate search in near freezing cold water. >> bodies of more than 40 people have so far been recovered. >> not sure how to process it. >> students and parents world champion figure skaters. >> i picture them right here. >> there are a lot of people hurting today. we will help find out what happened. >> one controller working two positions simultaneously. >> the people in the helicopter should have seen where they were

going. >> what altitude is that blackhawk at? >> we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation. >> good evening. i'm laura coates, live from reagan national airport outside of washington, d.c. right behind me is the site of the nation's deadliest aviation disaster in nearly 24 years. a blackhawk helicopter colliding with an american airlines airplane in the low skies above the potomac river. 64 people were on board that jet. three were inside of that helicopter. no one survived. all day, teams have been trying to recover the remains from the wreckage. and as of tonight. 14 plane passengers are still missing. the freezing water, the debris is making it extremely difficult. and now a crane is being brought in to help reach

more of the victims. tonight, we know both of the jet's black boxes have been found. they'll play a very crucial part in trying to piece together how in the world this tragedy even happened. so we'll finding out what was going on in the control tower. a source is telling cnn that one air traffic controller was working two different tower positions at the time of this fateful crash. we're also getting conflicting information, whether that is actually usual. unusual or what. now, the airspace around reagan national airport is incredibly complex, and that is an understatement. in fact, it's so complex that there has been some major close calls even recently. do you know that just one day before yesterday's crash, another flight was forced to abort its first landing due to helicopter traffic and the runway being used by the plane just last night, runway three three. that is apparently one of the most

complicated approaches in the entire country. it's also right by a corridor that's used by helicopters. now, here is the control tower directing the jet to runway three three after it was originally supposed to land on a different runway. >> li qiang 5342. washington star one. star 32021725. runway three three. >> yeah, we can do 3346 5342. >> katie britt runway three three. runway three three. christine lane. >> four minutes later, the control tower spoke with the pilot of the black hawk helicopter. the controller told the pilot to pass behind the jet. >> zubeidi sierra james risch p.a.t. 2-5 pam bondi zain verjee. this club has an aircraft in sight. separation. >> now the helicopter pilot says he saw the plane, but then just

13 seconds later, this happened. the black hawk collided with the plane, erupting into a fireball. there was an audible reaction inside of that control tower and then radio silence for several seconds. >> american 472. one star 32017. >> all right. this is when. >> tower, did you see that? american? 3132 250 mangione 3000. >> you can only imagine what was going through their minds during that silent period. and you can hear the tower scrambling to try then to redirect other flights after that crash. now, at this point, the fiery wreckage had fallen into icy waters right on the potomac. and dispatchers,

they were rushing to get rescue crews right to the scene to try to help. a ground controller gave the alert that all runways at the airport were then closed, and she told firefighters what she saw it was probably out in the middle of the river. >> um, i just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. so i haven't seen anything since they hit the river. >> cnn's danny freeman is here with me. danny, just one day before the tragic crash that has brought the nation to a halt, the another flight landing at this same airport apparently had been forced to go around because of helicopter traffic. what happened? >> yeah. that's right. laura. you know, the more we learn about some of the near misses that have occurred at this airport behind us, the more staggering and shocking what happened last night really does become. we learned from cnn's oren liebermann and aaron cooper

that just on tuesday, a plane had a near miss because of a helicopter, and they had to abort their landing. they were ultimately able to land safely. but we've also learned through our teams at cnn that that's not the only near-miss that has happened in recent years. in the past three years, at least two other pilots have reported near misses, specifically upon landing here at reagan national airport, specifically because there were helicopters in the way. these were passenger planes, laura, that actually had to take evasive actions due to helicopters. and there was also a third incident regarding two military helicopters that almost collided at one point. again, over the past three years. and these instances are so important, perhaps to what comes next, because there are members of congress who have been saying for years, and certainly the past 24 hours, that there is just too much traffic with just the planes, let alone with these military helicopters, that, as you've been talking about again for the past day and a half or so, come in and out very frequently. >> complex, challenging,

difficult. these are all the words we've been hearing people describe what it's like to even land and navigate at this airport, let alone the congestion of the air traffic. and yet we still know there is a recovery operation underway. 67 lives impacted, and all of their loved ones wondering if they will have their loved one's remains brought to them. where do recovery efforts stand today? >> so at this point, laura, we know that a little bit earlier this evening, the recovery efforts paused. they stopped for the night for a couple of different reasons. one, obviously because the sun went down, there was no more daylight. also because of the water conditions. but and this is the part that's really hard to process. the first responders who have been out there doing this hard work, they feel that they have already been able to recover the bodies that were able to be recovered without moving debris out of the way, or without potentially freeing people from the wreckage. cnn's kaitlan collins, she actually spoke to the president of the dc

fire association who really illustrated what this harrowing task is like. take a listen. >> this is terrible. and it's it's graphic. right. but they encountered people inside the plane, still strapped in their seats, and they weren't able to remove them right away. our divers and the metropolitan police department's divers dived continuously for five hours in these frigid cold temperatures. they were only working in about eight feet of water, so they were able to identify victims with flashlights from the surface, as well as retrieve them from underwater. >> again, just heartbreaking. heartbreaking. impossible to imagine being out there trying to go through this process at this point. we know that more than 40 bodies have been retrieved. but like i said, this process is not done yet. and first responders, they say that they are going to continue until they find every last one of these victims. laura. >> the harrowing experience of what they're trying to do and to try to get people. unbelievable. danny freeman, thank you so much. tonight we

have dash cam video obtained by cnn that shows the stunning moment the american airlines flight collided with the u.s. army black hawk helicopter right over the potomac river. >> watch joel berg. is it? it's blue. it's blue. oh! what happened? oh my god. oh my. >> god! >> oh my god. joining me now for insight into how this tragedy may have happened. former army black hawk helicopter pilot elizabeth mccormick. i've been really eager to speak with you, elizabeth, because there are so many questions people have, and they really want to understand how this could possibly have happened, given the experience, the expertise, the training, exercise, everything. help me understand what it's even like to fly a blackhawk in a very congested airspace with night vision goggles. and how much you think those conditions may have

contributed to what has happened? >> yeah, the. so i'd say that flying a helicopter is like being in the front car of a roller coaster. you control. it is that maneuverable. it allows you to be able to move and, you know, into new positions and move forward back quickly. side, side. in night vision goggles. you can't outfly what you can see. so you have to be more careful. and then but look at look at this footage right now behind you, all the lights, like night vision goggles, are typically where we're flying in treetop levels in, you know, for preparing, for training for combat. all the lights, that ambient light kind of glows out. you can see kind of like the halo, like kind of glows out in the night vision goggles and makes visibility even harder than what it might be. in fact, you know, i don't know if they were actually wearing the goggles during that that last part of the flight, because there was so much ambient light they might have, might have

pulled them up. >> what an important point. because even last night when we were out on the scene and you had first responders trying to navigate the waters, they asked the crew to turn off any light that may go on to the water, because it might diminish their ability to utilize their night vision goggles. and it didn't even occur to many people of how that might actually interact, let alone what you've described. and we have a military official who told reporters, elizabeth, that one pilot had 1000 flying hours. the copilot had 500 flying hours. can you give me a sense of what that level of experience might contribute to? is that considered very experienced enough that that might not have contributed to what happened? >> very experienced, so very experienced. you come out of flight school with only about 100 hours, so that is a high level ten times ten for what i

understand was an instructor pilot with the 1000 hours. so especially when you consider that during certain budgetary times, you know, we've cut back on training hours. >> that strikes me particularly. and so we don't actually know. of course, we're still waiting. the investigation well underway, the rescue operation continuing. we don't know what went wrong, but given that experience level, it raises more questions. but you have drawn attention to three possible contributing factors. you've talked about the insufficient crew for visual flight operations. the black hawk was flying too high, and air traffic control communication could have been more precise. so the first issue in terms of the number of people who were a part of that visual flight crew, did they have enough people given the ambient lighting, given the air traffic congestion, would three people have been sufficient, do you think, to be able to have the

full line of sight? >> no. absolutely not. i want you to visualize, like even if you're in your car and you're driving in your car, you can only see without them because we don't have rear view mirrors, right? you can only see basically from about your 3:00 to your 9:00. that's all you can see in a helicopter. we have two crew chiefs. typically we have spots for two crew chiefs right behind the pilots. their seats face outward. they have a window, they can slide open. they stick their head out of the window and look, we only had one. i don't understand why. for a crew of four under these kind of conditions, a dense airspace, visual flight where where clearance is the responsibility of the black hawk to maintain their visual clearance from other aircraft. i don't understand why we only had three on, especially night vision goggles as well, i think. and one of the things i call for

is for the department of defense to start requiring a crew of four as a minimum crew, not a crew of three. >> and contributing that and adding to that the night vision goggles, which could further limit the ability to see as much as you need to. but i'm struck by what you said about the responsibility of clearance landing with the black hawk crew. we we know that they were flying at an altitude that you say raises eyebrows. why? why was the black hawk flying above its designated altitude? any idea of how that could have happened? >> the only thing i can think of is that they creeped up because of all the ground clutter. with the night vision goggles and the reflections of the lights on the river, and they might have lost track of their altitude. that's the only thing i can think of. i'm not sure what else why else they would have unless there was something else i'm not aware of. >> elizabeth mccormick i know

this is underway. so difficult to try to unpack. thank you for your contribution this evening. we appreciate it. tonight there are growing questions over what caused this mid-air plane and military helicopter collision, claiming the lives of 67 people. here to unpack more of what we know at this hour, we have cnn aviation analyst miles o'brien. we have the former ntsb investigator, alan diehl, and a retired air traffic controller, vincent sujan. thank you for this trifecta of expertise. i want to begin with you, alan, because there are a lot of questions about what has happened, and i have to know what comes to mind for you when you hear that this may not be isolated in terms of a near collision, another flight just a day before this extraordinary tragedy had to abort its first landing attempt and dodge around a helicopter as it flew near its

path. is this a pattern? >> truly scary. yeah. uh, obviously this. i've flown into this airspace when i was an faa employee, and it wasn't. this is years ago. it wasn't this nearly this busy. obviously, things have gotten much busier, and all the restrictions have come in post nine over 11. so this is such a demanding place. it's not surprising that there are previous incidents, but they should have been addressed and remedied. clearly they there's a nasa reporting system where you can report problems called the aviation safety reporting system. i'm sure people are looking at how many incidents have occurred. incidents have occurred at this airport. uh, reagan is a very demanding airport. i know when the faa had us flying out of there in fixed wing aircraft, not helicopters, they always demanded that we had two pilots to to refer to back

to us. mrs. mccormack said about the the blackhawk crew. so it's a very busy place. you need a lot of eyes looking out. and i'm not surprised that there's been a previous incident. >> you know, miles, it's so unsettling for so many people who have been following this. nervous perhaps already about air flights and travel, but also the idea of the traffic and the complexity and challenging nature for so many people who were trying to navigate and otherwise congested airspace. and this seems to have been a known issue over at least the past three years. i mean, pilots, they have reported near-misses with helicopters at this very airport as as alan said, this airport is incredibly congested here in the nation's capital. how hard is it to land here given all of these factors? >> laura, this airspace is uniquely complicated and i would submit uniquely dangerous. i

don't know of any other airport in the united states where there is a helicopter corridor 200ft below where the final approach glideslope is for an airliner. those helicopters have to stay 200ft or lower, and the aircraft above them are only at about 400ft. that is precious little space and affords very little margin for error. and so when you add the complexity of this airspace, the increased amount of traffic, the need to put these helicopters through this narrow corridor along the potomac river, that particular place, that spot where this accident occurred, was an accident crying out to happen. it's amazing. it hasn't happened previously, but there you have it. those two aircraft were on the horizontal place where they should be. there was an x that met there and they had

to be 200ft apart and they weren't. on this occasion, and that's why we had this tragedy. >> you know, i can't help but wonder if one of the factors for the investigation, vincent, of course, will be whether what makes it particularly complex for a commercial airlines to land makes it perhaps advantageous for military training, given what they might confront in conflict times as well. but let me ask you, vincent, we are also learning tonight one one air traffic control was working two tower positions at the time of the crash. is that abnormal? could that have been a contributing factor, or is it commonplace for these positions to be combined? >> well, it is normal around the national airspace, and that is a bone of contention between controllers and management on when two combined and recombine. um, his voice didn't give me any concern that he was behind

or he was rushing or that that he was overloaded. um, his transmission seemed to be appropriate for the situation. the exchange between him and the pilot seemed appropriate, and he just didn't seem overloaded at all. but it is normal to combine positions up. yes. >> i mean, on that point, and i think it's so great that you're talking about the kinds of cues that you would have picked up on air traffic controllers. it must be an extraordinarily stressful job in the best of times, let alone a congested airport like we have. but the idea of controlling it when you've got these two corridors, one helicopter based, one airline based, does that add to the difficulty in being able to differentiate and convey the right information to the pilots from both aircrafts well, sure. >> like i never worked at that complex of an airspace. i worked in detroit tower, but we did have aircraft that we did the same thing. do you have insight

past behind but is much more congested there? um. the lights. he could have misidentified the c r j. there are a number of things that could have happened, but yes, it is much more complex there. but those guys are trained very well. they're trained to work the positions combined and they're trained to, to to work that type of traffic. and they're, they're very good at it. and you know, the things happen just like in any other job. the pilot could have misread something missing something. the controller you guys talked about that earlier go around, um, you know, the humans are involved in this. and when mistakes are made, you have to send aircraft around to avoid it. and regardless of who made the mistake. so given that it the complexity of it is absolutely there. but they're a very well trained. we have the best controllers in the world, and i'm sure dcas are, are are up for the task i want to thank everyone. >> it seems that all the

questions we have, the one that's probably most important to the loved ones who have lost their loved ones, is, can i wake up from this nightmare just hours into this investigation with no clear answers? still? and yet, president trump is suggesting he knows who to blame. perhaps the helicopter pilots, democrats, and yes, even die. >> that's why i'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash. >> because they have common sense. >> congresswoman jennifer mcclellan brings her common sense. she's standing by to respond to all of that next. plus the questions tonight about just how congested this airspace really is and whether a new law may have made it worse. >> this part changed my life.

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what makes all the difference. >> i'm oren liebermann at the pentagon, and this is cnn. >> president trump is blaming his two favorite boogeyman for the deadliest air disaster in america in two decades. die. and democrats. less than 24 hours after the collision, while rescue workers searched the frigid waters for the potomac survivors potential, trump walked into the white house briefing room to point the finger at disabled people and diversity. >> i do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office, and

here's one the faa's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. that is amazing. they put a big push to put diversity into the faa's program. then it's a group within the faa. another story determined that the workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately. >> and it didn't end there. trump also blamed president obama and president biden and former transportation secretary pete buttigieg. >> he's a disaster. he was a disaster as a mayor, he ran his city into the ground, and he's a disaster now. he's just got a good line of buttigieg

responding on x writing, quote, despicable. >> as families grieve. trump should be leading, not lying. with me now, congresswoman jennifer mcclellan, a democrat from virginia. she's the first black woman from virginia elected to congress. this was this the appropriate time or place for president trump to make these statements? >> absolutely not. and first of all, what he should have done is what i want to do right now. and that is to extend my heartfelt condolences to the family members who are still waiting to be reunited with their loved ones, remains a hearty thank you to the first responders who have been working to recover those bodies under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. that is what the american people needed yesterday is to hear our leader to provide comfort and not to speculate and to bring out his favorite boogeyman, as you said, and to jump to conclusions that

black people or women working at the faa caused this tragedy. >> in fact, the idea that he blasted the faa, as you heard, for hiring people with disabilities, but a pilot program, congresswoman, that started during his first administration and ensured people with disabilities would have the same hiring standards and hiring practices as anyone else. why would he be blaming them in particular? what are we missing? >> because what he always does is, rather than looking at the facts, rather than being responsible and letting the investigation happen, look at what actually caused this accident and then do something to make sure that something like this never happens again. he takes this opportunity to politicize it and to stoke division in this country, which he's been doing since day one of this administration and since he first ran for president nine years ago. >> let me ask you about the faa. they say that they need. if i got my number correct, about

3000, 3000 more air traffic controllers. trump wants federal employees to maybe take a buyout. what impact could that have. >> that would have a huge impact on what we already have as a shortage. and you already have workers that are stressed and trying to meet the needs to keep the american people safe. he also ousted the head of the faa and has created chaos since he's come into office. what we need right now is to let the ntsb do its job to find out what caused or causes occurred to lead to this tragedy, and then we need to take action to make sure that something like this never happens again. >> while we are waiting for all the information to unfold, it's important to note that you were one of the members of congress who voted against expanding the, you know, ability for more flights to come in and out of this airport. do you stand by that today? >> absolutely. all of the democratic members of the virginia delegation have been speaking out for a long time, that this airport is already too

congested. you've talked about the complicated traffic patterns here. we all asked our committees not to put new slots in. we all voted against the bill for that very reason. >> you know, this is an administration that's brand new, although it's a familiar one. some of the cabinet members, within hours of having been sworn in, transportation secretary, the defense secretary, do you have any concerns about the ability of this administration to navigate this tragedy and and understand what happened. >> if this administration takes the responsible road and says, we are going to look at what at the facts, we are going to look at what actually caused this tragedy and act to make sure it never happens again. but they've shown from day one they're not interested in helping people and solving problems. they are interested in stoking chaos and division. they are interested in retribution against their political enemies. but that is

not what the american people want. that is not what they expect of their leaders in a moment like this. >> you're, i believe, on the armed services committee as well. congresswoman, we lost three members of the military who were in that blackhawk helicopter. do you have any information as to what that investigation will look like, or whether their training practices might be impacted? >> that is part of what the army and the ntsb will work together with all of the relevant agencies to determine they are going to look at the people involved, the equipment involved, and the atmosphere involved. to see was it human error? was it equipment? was it confusion because of the congestion here? and so i trust the army and the ntsb and all of our federal partners and everyone involved to look at the facts. and then if they see changes that need to be made to bring that to congress's attention, and we will act. >> is there bipartisan support behind that at this point? >> i certainly hope so.

>> congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us this evening. >> thank you. >> up next, remembering the victims of flight five, four, three, two. among them, a gregarious flight attendant who, quote, died doing what he loved. many of his friends and former colleagues live with me next to share his story. >> listen to chasing life with me, dr. sanjay gupta, wherever you get your podcasts. >> wow. off to meet that perfect match of yours. yep. >> got to go to discount tire right now. just plugged in my vehicle location. driving habits. and treadwell matched me with the perfect tires. >> i'm so excited. >> let's go. >> we've always. >> loved taking care of our home. but last year, grandpa here broke his arm. we realized some home maintenance jobs aren't worth the risk. >> that's what we call leaffilter. to protect our gutters. leaf filter's patented. >> filter technology. >> keeps debris out of your gutters for good.

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delivered and set up in any room of your house. saatva luxury mattresses made affordable. >> one of the many lost souls on last night's fatal plane crash. american airlines flight attendant ian epstein. he was just 53 years old. his sister robbie bloom telling cnn, quote,

my brother was a wonderful, wonderful man. he loved life. he loved traveling. he loved his job. he loved his family. and he will be sorely missed. she went on to say he made friends everywhere he went. he used to talk about the people he met on the plane, as if they were all new friends. epstein leaves behind two children and two stepchildren. and now i want to bring back in derek mcfadden. he is a former flight attendant himself and a friend of ian epstein. derek, thank you for joining us. i know ian was your friend. what was he like? what should people know about him? >> um, ian. was just. >> a ball. >> of vibrant, like. >> colorful energy. um, i happened to meet him during training. um, he was a class behind me, and i happened to help his classmates, you know, graduate and prepare for tests. and that's when i encountered,

like, just someone i've never encountered before. like this. this, this human being, this man just held together the greatest satisfaction for flying. um, an appreciation for the job. like he wasn't even a flight attendant yet. and he was so enthusiastic about just becoming a flight attendant. and i had the blessing and the privilege to meet him. even, as you can see, flying with him as well. um, and even when i flew with him, like it was early in the morning and 6 a.m., we had to get up really early in the morning and like, just being able to experience someone that early in the morning that has all this energy and love and vibrance and through him. but like he gave me a hug because he was like, thank you for getting me here. and i was like, you got here on yourself. but it still showed me his humanity as a flight attendant. i think we should all, as flight attendants and flight attendants, can appreciate that we love our job. we get up every day. a lot of us do it because we just love people, regardless of pay. but ian definitely was the greatest

example. one of the greatest examples of appreciation, of loving his job, loving people, and just being on the plane and just holding the job well. like, i mean, doing it well, like of excellence a lot of times. um, every time for me when i flew with him. but it's he'll be he'll be sorely missed. um, i miss him. um, we've talked even between times we've joked. um, but i love having having someone on the flight that, like, matched my same energy as a flight attendant. you know. >> and must have been so wonderful as passengers to know him and to become a quick friend of someone like him. with that magnetism. i know there are about 125,000 flight attendants in the united states, but you say it's actually a closer community than people might actually imagine. what are you hearing from members of the flight attendant community this evening? >> um, i'm just hearing what we've we've always talked about, how much we appreciate one another, because at the end of the day, we go through 6 to 8

weeks of training. um, we don't know each other. so you go from that to then you bond and then you pass tests and you make sure each one, you know, one of you studies, if they're failing a test and you, you know, you help them and then you get out there in the real world and on the line, as we would call it. and you now have to practice these things and do them well, but also do them with someone that you've already built a bond with. so what we're feeling right now is just for a lot of us, and also all flight attendants is there's this personal separation from someone that we, you know, we embrace, especially for someone as close as ian. um, so we all have that with someone in our, in the aviation industry. so it's, it's hard when it hits close to home because, you know, someone personally, i may not know every flight attendant, but i know what they do go through every day because that's what we do. it's the same thing. it's the same plane, it's the same job. but you build a bond like a like a hyper bonding happens between training and your career, and you stay together. y'all love one another. i mean, we don't we

don't just serve snacks like we that's that's the least. um, but we spend time with one another. we live with one another. so it's like having ian and the rest of the crew that i. that i knew about, um, no longer are here with us. it's just like there's a, there's a ripping apart because it's like i had no control of that so he'll he'll be sorely missed. like, i mean, all of them. i mean, it's hard not to be emotional, but it's hard. yeah. >> i can only imagine how hard it is. and thousands of you got right back on flights today to greet passengers who i'm sure were nervous. and you did it in the way that you guys know how. derek mcfadden, thank you so much for being here and sharing. >> thank you. >> for having me, ian thank you. the figure skating community also devastated. tonight, more than a dozen members, including skaters and coaches, were killed on this flight. six six from one skating club with ties to the

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champion figure skaters and two teenage skaters thought to be among the sport's next generation of stars, along with their mothers. u.s. figure skating saying this in a statement today, these athletes, coaches and family members returning home from the national development camp held in conjunction with the u.s. figure skating championships in wichita, kansas. we are devastated by the unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims families closely in our hearts. and earlier today, members of the skating community came together to offer their condolences to the families of those who lost their lives. one of those individuals was olympic figure skater nancy kerrigan. listen. >> i feel for the athletes, the skaters and their families. but anyone that was on that plane, not just the skaters, because it's just such a tragic event. and we've been through

tragedies before, as americans, as people, and we are strong. and i guess it's how we respond to it. and so my response was to be with people i care about, and i love. >> now i want to bring in cnn sports analyst christine brennan, who's familiar to everyone from all the olympics that you have covered as well. the tragedy overwhelming. we know that there are world championship skaters who turned into coaches as well. what do you know about those who lost their lives? >> well, we're. >> talking there about the russians. who won the 1994. world championship in pairs. and we're in the olympics in 94 with nancy kerrigan, actually, and came in fourth. and unfortunately, they were on the plane. they lost their lives. the naumov family. of yevgeny shishkova and vadim naumov naumov and their son maksim finished fourth. laura in the the men's competition on

sunday. so talk about a high high, you know, for a young man to be fourth. that's on the medal podium. he flew back here to dca on monday. his mom and dad, these great russian coaches from the past who moved to the united states when the bottom fell out of the soviet union, came to the u.s. to coach u.s. kids as well as their son, who's an american. they decided to stay for two more days and work with those young developmental skaters. they were on the plane. then on wednesday night, tragically. >> you know, as as so many parents who have their children and what a thrill it must have been for these young people to be in the company of these world champions, to be in the company of these development programs, hoping for a chance at greatness in the field that they love. there were two young people, spencer lane jinna han. they were thought to be really the future of the sport. >> this is exactly of of the many, many parts of this tragedy. this was the future for u.s. figure skating. these young

athletes working their way up. it wasn't going to be next year's olympics. the winter olympics, of course, are coming in about a year in italy, not 2026. we're talking about 2030. their hopes and dreams, you know, young teenagers just starting out. and the idea of being that future, that now there is such a whole there's such a loss obviously for their families and of course friends. but the sports element of this just the incredible devastation for this, for the u.s. figure skating organization and even for someone like ilya malinin, who is the three time reigning national champ. i talked to him today for a column for usa today. and, you know, he's devastated. he told me that normally he works out 4 to 6 hours a day in reston, virginia. when he got back on monday as well. and he said 30 minutes and he couldn't even do it anymore. he could not be on the ice. he is that devastated about the loss of these young people who he knew from his rank and from other ranks in the d.c. area. >> well, we just heard from

nancy kerrigan, who expressed her emotional devastation and just thinking about what this will be like to have this community heal. >> well, figure skating went through it before 1961, so there was a terrible plane crash. um, the entire u.s. team going to the world championships in prague in 1961 was was killed, wiped out. and that was in some ways the same here, in some ways different because those were the best. those were the national champs going to the worlds out of the ashes, literally. of that came peggy fleming seven years later. but that took many, many years. and again, the sports element almost seems trivial when we're talking about the loss of life of children and young people, family members, but figure skating went through that. and the thing that hits me the most, laura, about that, is that to this day, the u.s. figure skating association has a memorial fund that is funded millions of dollars of scholarships for young skaters, including now. so they still

talk about that 1961 plane crash and the incredible giving and generosity and positivity, really, that came out of that horrible moment for u.s. figure skating. let's hope that we may well see something like that again out of the tragedy here last night. >> that's a beautiful thought. thank you christine. thank you. really important. and tonight we've learned of another victim of the deadly collision. professor kia duggins. she was on her way toward starting a new adventure, becoming a professor at howard university school of law right here in washington, dc this fall. the university says she was a civil rights lawyer, and she had dedicated her life to fighting against unconstitutional policing in tennessee, texas and washington. professor duggins was a wichita native, and we remember her and 66 other victims of this tragedy. thank you all for

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