Tight-Knit U.S. Figure Skating Community Deeply Shaken by Washington, D.C. Plane Crash

The U.S. figure skating community was profoundly affected by the collision between an American Eagle plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near a Washington D.C. airport that left all 67 people aboard the two aircrafts presumably dead. | Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

Charlie White awakened Thursday morning to texts asking if he was O.K. He was; but no one really was. American Eagle Flight 5342 had left Wichita, Kans., where White had just been, and crashed into a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport. All 67 people aboard the two aircrafts are presumed dead, including at least 14 from the figure-skating community. Recovery efforts are still ongoing and all of the victims have yet to be identified. 

White, a former Olympic gold medalist ice dancer, is 37. He has not competed in almost a decade, so in that sense, he is no longer a skater. But he will always be a skater, and when I saw him Friday, he was skating. White and his wife, former Olympian Tanith Belbin White, coach 14 skaters at the Michigan Ice Dance Academy. Ten of them had just returned from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.