A Passenger Plane & Military Helicopter Midair Crash, Just Off Of Route 1

A midair collision between an American Eagle passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River happened on January 30, 2025.  This resulted in multiple fatalities, with no survivors among the 67 people aboard both aircraft.

A skating coach and two youth skaters from Delaware died in plane collision.  The Delaware State Senator, Chris Coons stated, “I’m devastated to hear the news that at least three Delawareans died during last night’s air collision. Sasha Kirsanov, Sean Kay, and Angela Yang went to Wichita to pursue their passion for figure skating,” Coons posted on X Thursday. “It is a tragedy that none of them returned home to our state. Delaware is a state of neighbors, and tonight we hold all of our neighbors a little closer. My heart goes out to Sasha’s wife Natalia, the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club, and every other Delawarean touched by the three of them.”

University of Delaware President Dennis Assanis said that Kirsanov was a former skating coach for the school’s figure skating club.

“At this time, we are aware that Sasha Kirsanov, a former UD Figure Skating Club coach, was on the airplane,” he said in a statement posted on the university’s website Thursday. “We believe two young skaters who were members of the UD Figure Skating Club also were on board.”

“Kirsanov and the skaters trained at the University’s High Performance Training Center, which uses UD ice rink facilities and has been the training home for many years of multiple world-class skating champions and competitors. The figure skating community is tight-knit, and many of our students and coaches have trained and competed alongside those who were lost.”

The school’s figure skating club president, Melissa Maldonado, said “Sasha was more than just a coach – he was a mentor, a friend, and a light in the skating world. His passing for this sport was contagious, and his kindness, wisdom, and unwavering belief in his skaters helped so many of us grow both on and off the ice.”

Flight attendant Ian Epstein, 53, was on the American Airlines flight, according to his sister Robbie Bloom. Police notified Epstein’s next of kin, who then notified Bloom, Bloom told CNN Thursday. Epstein was one of 64 people aboard the plane, which was flying from Wichita, Kansas.

Epstein, who had been a flight attendant for several years, loved to travel and loved meeting new people, Bloom said.

“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,” Bloom said.

Epstein leaves behind two children and two stepchildren, according to Bloom.

“My brother was a wonderful, wonderful man. He loved life. He loved traveling. He loved his job. He loved his family,” Bloom told CNN. “And he will be sorely missed.”

There was two crash victims were from Latin America.  One of them was an elderly man born in Argentina and the other was his son, also an adult and originally from Chile.

The Chinese Embassy in the US said that according to “preliminary information,” two Chinese citizens were among the victims of the midair collision.