The wife of a skating coach of Delaware says she has “lost everything” after learning that her husband was one of the victims Killed when an American Airlines plane crashed in the air with an army helicopter in Washington, DC, Wednesday night.
Natalya Gudin He told WPVI That she and her husband, Alexandr “Sasha” Kirsanov, were skating coaches in Delaware. She recalled the decision now heartbreaking that she and her husband took that Kirsanov would travel to Wichita, Kansas, for a development camp.
The rescuers in boats work as the sun rises on the accident site after a black hawk helicopter collided with the 5342 flight of American Eagle, which approached the Reagan Washington National Airport, and crashed into the Potomac River, Out of Washington, DC, in January. 30, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
“We are husband and wife,” he told the station. “We decided who is going, who stays at home,” he said. “We decided that I would go to the development camp.”
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Kirsanov, 46, was one of the 67 people killed when American Airlines Flight 5342 and a Black Hawk UH-60 helicopter collided near the Reagan Washington National Airport around 9 pm local time.
What began as a search and rescue effort became a recovery operation after the authorities said there were no survivors.
Among the victims included several members of the artistic skating community. US artistic skating. He issued a statement confirming that the victims returned home from a development camp held after the United States artistic skating championship in Wichita, which concluded on Sunday.
“I lost everything. I lost my husband. I lost my students. I lost my friends,” Gudin told the station.
The president of the University of Delaware, Dennis Assanis, issued a statement on Thursday confirming that Kirsanov, a former artistic skating coach of the University, was one of the victims in Wednesday’s accident.
Photos of victims after the collision between a Jet American Airlines and a US black hawk helicopter. (Getty images)
The Olympic skater Tonya Harding calls loss in the airline collision “absolutely devastating”
“It saddens me incredibly sharing the news that several members of the artistic skating community connected to the University of Delaware were among those who tragically lost life in a aircraft collision last night in Washington, DC,” said his statement.
“Kirsanov and the skaters were formed at the High Performance High Performance Center of the University, which uses UD ice slope facilities and has been the training home for many years of multiple champions and world -class skating competitors .
Assanis also confirmed that Kirsanov was with “two young skaters” on the flight. He identified them only as members of the UD artistic skating club, but Senator Chris Coans, D-Del., He later identified them as Kay and Angela Yang.
“I am devastated when listening to the news that at least three of the Delawareans died during the air collision of the previous night. Sasha Kirsanov, Sean Kay and Angela Yang went to Wichita to follow their passion for artistic skating. It is a tragedy that no one From them he returned home to our state “, its publication in X read.
Part of the remains is seen when the rescue boats seek in the waters of the Potomac River after a plane when approaching the Reagan National Airport crashed into the river near Washington, DC, on January 30, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Images)
“Delaware is a state of neighbors, and tonight we keep all our neighbors a little more close. My heart is with the wife of Sasha Natalia, the figurative skating club of the University of Delaware and all the others of the delaware touched by the three”.
Kirsanov’s daughter, Nicole, also published a tribute on social networks after the loss of her father.
“I miss you dad, I would do anything to bring you back and tell you that I loved you once again,” he wrote on an Instagram post.
Kirsanov was eight times national coach and three times international coach of the Junior world with almost a decade of experience.
