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“I need my husband back. I need his body back,” said Natalya Gudin, whose husband Alexandr “Sasha” Kirsanov and two of their young students were among the 64 people on board the flight that crashed into a helicopter in DC.
Figure skating coach Natalya Gudin is speaking out following the tragic accident that took the lives of her husband, Alexandr “Sasha” Kirsanov, and two of their students.
On Wednesday night, an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided in the air near the Ronald Raegan Washington National Airport (DCA). The American Eagle Flight 5342 — which was traveling from Wichita, Kansas to DCA — was carrying 64 people on board, including multiple US figure skaters, while the military helicopter had three soldiers on board.
As of this publishing, at least 40 bodies have been recovered from the fallen plane and chopper. However, the DC Fire and EMS Chief said officials “don’t believe there are survivors.”
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In an interview with ABC News, Gudin opened up about the tragedy.
“I lost everything. I lost my husband. I lost my students. I lost my friends,” she said.
Gudin and her husband Kirsanov both coached figure skaters in Delaware. Gudin said that she and Kirsanov decided that he would travel with their two young skating students, Sean Kay and Angela Yang, to the National Development Camp in Wichita.
“We are husband and wife,” she recalled. “We decided who’s going, who’s staying home. We decided he would go to the development camp.”
Gudin shared that she spoke to her husband on Wednesday afternoon while he was at the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport and was boarding American Airlines Flight 5342 to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.
“It’s time for boarding,” Gudin recalled her husband telling her over a phone call, adding that she and Kirsanov planned to speak again when he landed.
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However, Gudin didn’t hear from her husband again — but soon learned the horrific news about the flight-helicopter collision from a mother whose child was on the same flight as her husband, telling ABC News that she then told the woman they should “immediately go to DC.”
Now, following her husband’s presumed death — along with the other 63 passengers — Gudin said she’s staying at a hotel in Virginia as she waits for Kirsanov’s body to be recovered from the crash.
“I need my husband back,” Gudin told ABC News. “I need his body back.”
Meanwhile, during an interview with Delaware Online, Gudin reportedly broke down in tears while reacting to the tragic deaths of her husband, Kay, and Yang, which she called a “triple” loss.
“This young team — Sean Kay and Angela Yang — they were so amazing,” she said. “All the judges were so proud and they had such a big future. And what, all on the same plane?”
According to Golden Skate, 17 members of the figure skating community — including athletes, coaches, and family members — were on the American Airlines flight.
US Figure Skating issued a statement on Wednesday morning, confirming that “several members” of the community — who were returning from the figure skating camp in Wichita — had lost their lives.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” the organization said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
See how the figure skating community is reacting to the crash, here.
