‘I lost everything’: Wife of skating coach killed in DC plane crash speaks out
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(WASHINGTON) — Natalya Gudin and her husband, Alexandr Kirsanov, who coached two young figure skaters aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, had a choice to make before the plane took off: Who would go and who would stay.
The couple decided Kirsanov would fly to Wichita, Kansas, to accompany their skaters at the National Development Camp for figure skating, Gudin told ABC News in an interview.
On Wednesday night, the Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet and Black Hawk helicopter both crashed into the icy Potomac River after colliding in midair, launching a desperate overnight search and rescue mission. No survivors are expected, officials said.
“I lost everything. I lost my husband. I lost my students. I lost my friends,” Gudin said.
The last time she spoke to her husband was on Wednesday afternoon, when Kirsanov was at the gate at the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport.
“It’s time for boarding,” Gudin said her husband told her on the phone. They were supposed to talk again when he landed at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.
That call never came.
Instead, Gudin said she heard from the mother of one of the other figure skaters aboard the flight that there was a crash. Gudin said they should “immediately go to D.C.”
Just before 9 p.m., while on its final approach to the airport, the regional jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided midair with a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter with three people aboard. Dive teams and other first responders worked through the night in the frigid waters of the Potomac River, where the aircraft had crashed.
Gudin said she stayed up through the night, hoping for good news.
But by Thursday morning, she learned her husband and their students had likely died. Officials said on Thursday that what began as a rescue rescue mission had become a recovery mission.
Authorities had recovered 30 bodies from the jet and one body from the helicopter as of Thursday afternoon, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz told ABC News. D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said they do not expect any survivors.
On Thursday afternoon, Gudin was at a hotel in Virginia waiting for more information about Kirsanov’s remains.
“I need my husband back,” Gudin said. “I need his body back.”
Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles/ U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The National Transportation Safety Board chairman called for immediate changes at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, saying the current helicopter routes around the airport “pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety.”
Chairman Jennifer Homendy said the NTSB is recommending that the Federal Aviation Administration permanently ban helicopter operations near Reagan when runways 15 and 33 are in use.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has “restricted helicopter traffic from operating over the Potomac River at DCA until March 31,” Homendy said at a news conference Tuesday. “And I want to commend him for that and commend the work of the FAA to also take swift action.”
However, “as that deadline nears, we remain concerned about the significant potential for future midair collision at DCA,” she said.
Homendy outlined a history of close calls at Reagan and offered a solution as the NTSB continues to the investigate the devastating crash between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed all 67 people on board both aircraft.
The crash happened on the night of Jan. 29 when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which had departed from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people on board, was about to land at Reagan (DCA). The three soldiers on the helicopter were conducting an annual training flight and night vision goggle check ride for one of the pilots at the time when the two aircraft collided. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River.
Between October 2021 and December 2024, there were 944,179 commercial operations at Reagan, Homendy said. During that time, there were 15,214 close proximity events between commercial airplanes and helicopters, she said.
Encounters between helicopters and commercial aircraft near Reagan show that, from 2011 through 2024, a vast majority of reported events occurred on approach to landing, she said.
Homendy said last month that there was no indication the helicopter crew involved in the January crash could tell there was an impending collision.
The soldiers may have had “bad data” on the altitude from their altimeter, as the pilots had differing altitudes in the seconds before the crash, Homendy said. One helicopter pilot thought they were at 400 feet and the other thought they were at 300 feet.
The transmission from the tower that instructed the helicopter to go behind the plane may not have been heard by the crew because the pilot may have keyed her radio at the same second and stepped on the transmission from ATC, the NTSB added.
The Black Hawk crew was likely wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight, Homendy said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(PHILADELPHIA) — The black box from the medical transport jet that crashed in Philadelphia Friday evening is on its way to Washington, D.C., where the National Transportation Safety Board will try to extricate any information, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a press conference Monday.
The jet, which was carrying a child and her mother along with four other people, was in the air for less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport before coming down in a fiery “high-impact” crash.
The six people on board, as well as one person on the ground, were killed.
The Learjet 55, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, took off at 6:06 p.m. Friday, climbed to about 1,500 feet and then rapidly descended, according to NTSB investigator Bill Hicks.
“The entire flight lasted less than a minute,” Hicks said.
The child, who had just received care from Shriner’s Hospital in Philadelphia, was returning home to Mexico with her mother.
There were also four crew members on board. All were Mexican citizens, according to a statement from the Mexican government. NTSB investigators announced on Sunday that the aircraft’s engines and cockpit voice recorder had been recovered from the crash.
The CVR was located at the site of initial impact, at a depth of 8 feet, according to investigators.
The airplane’s enhanced ground proximity warning system, which could also contain flight data was recovered Sunday as well, officials said. Both components have been sent to the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for evaluation.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance identified those aboard the crashed jet as 11-year-old pediatric patient Valentina Guzman Murillo and her 31-year-old mother, Lizeth Murillo Ozuna; Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, paramedic Lopez Padilla, flight Capt. Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales and co-pilot Josue De Jesus Juarez Juarez.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said Montoya Perales, 46, had worked for the company since 2016, and that 43-year-old Juarez Juarez had been with the company since December 2023. Arredondo, 41, has been flying with the air ambulance company since 2020 and 41-year-old Padilla has been with the company since November 2023.
The mayor of Ensenada, Mexico, a city in the state of Baja California, confirmed two of the victims as Valentina Guzman Murillo and her mother.
Ensenada government officials said the plane was bound for Tijuana, Mexico. The plane was scheduled to make a stopover in Springfield, Missouri, before continuing to Tijuana, officials said.
In addition to those aboard the aircraft, at least one person in a vehicle died in the crash. The identity of the person has not been disclosed.
Parker said Monday that the number of people injured on the ground had risen from 22 to 24. She said four people remained hospitalized as of Monday, two are in stable condition and two are in critical condition.
There was no indication of a problem radioed from the flight deck of the jet back to air traffic control before the crash, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters. “In fact, in the recording that we have, there is an attempt by air traffic controllers to get a response from the flight crew that they didn’t receive,” she said.
The NTSB has classified the crash as an accident.
The “high-impact” crash left debris scattered across four to five city blocks, Homendy said.
At least five homes caught fire in the aftermath of the crash, Philadelphia officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration is assisting in the investigation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday a preliminary report on what caused the crash will be available within 30 days.
The crash of the medical jet came just two days after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a regional American Airlines jet near Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.
Homendy said her agency is able to carry out both investigations simultaneously.
“We are a highly skilled agency,” she said, adding that it’s not unusual for the board to investigate two incidents.
In a message posted on X, Duffy called the back-to-back disasters a “heart-wrenching week.”
Regarding the Philadelphia crash, Duffy said, “We’re not going to have answers right away. It’s going to take time. But as I get those answers, I’m going to share it with all of you.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Monday the incident shows “a thin line between tragedy and triumph, between danger and safety.”
“That line you can literally witness on Cottman Avenue,” Shapiro said during a press conference on Monday. “[A] millisecond difference could have claimed more lives in our community. Thank God, it didn’t.”
ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos contributed to this report.
(SILETZ, Ore.) — A massive search is underway for an Oregon toddler who was reported missing on Saturday afternoon, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department.
Dane Paulsen, 2, was reported missing at approximately 4:25 p.m. Saturday and was last seen playing in the front yard of his family’s Siletz, Oregon, home, “out of sight of his parents,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement on Sunday.
“We thank our community for sharing information and tips related to this investigation,” the sheriff’s department said. “Our team and the community are working tirelessly to bring Dane home.”
Authorities have searched 382 acres and 283 miles have been covered, but Paulsen has still not been found, authorities said.
The child is “friendly and fearless, and is comfortable around strangers and water, but cannot swim” and is “known to love water and vehicles,” authorities said.
Paulsen has brown hair and green eyes, and was last seen wearing a gray, fuzzy hoodie with ears, black pants and blue and white shoes, the sheriff’s department said.
Multiple search-and-rescue teams, 40 investigators, aerial drones, human trailing dogs and 138 community volunteers continue to search for Paulsen, authorities said. Marine teams and divers have also begun looking in the Siletz River, authorities said.
The Lincoln County Major Crime Team and the FBI are also assisting with the investigation and any new leads, authorities said. The FBI’s Victim Service Division is also providing resources to Paulsen’s family, officials said.
Previously, an adult male and a 1990s gold-colored station wagon, “both of which were not known to the family,” were seen in the area approximately 30 minutes prior to Paulsen’s disappearance, but authorities have located the driver and the vehicle, which are “no longer a point of interest.”
At this time, “Dane’s disappearance does not meet the criteria to use the Amber Alert system,” according to the sheriff’s department.
The Department of Justice requires certain criteria to issue an Amber Alert, including the following: reasonable belief an abduction occurred, the child is in imminent danger of injury or death, there is enough descriptive information on the victim and the abduction, the child is 17 years or younger and the child’s name or other important information has been entered into the National Crime Information Center system, according to the department’s website.
“There is no evidence at this time to suggest criminal actions are involved in this incident,” police said.
Officials said community members wanting to assist with search efforts can check in with camp hosts at Elks Toketee Illahee campground on Monday, or can report relevant information regarding Paulsen’s disappearance by calling 541-265-0669.
The sheriff’s department said additional updates on the situation will be shared via social media and FlashAlert.
