RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond's local skating community, like so many skating communities across the nation, is mourning the loss of skaters, coaches and families on board American Airlines flight 5342 who they knew, or knew of, who they say are all part of a tight-knit family.
CBS 6 anchor Bill Fitzgerald stopped by Richmond Ice Zone Thursday afternoon and spoke to two coaches who say the tragedy is devastating.
"We don't really think of each other as from different countries. In figure skating, we're all just one giant group," Eric Meier said.
The scene at Richmond Ice Zone Thursday was one you might see at any rink across the country: skaters of different skill levels all working at the sport they love.
"One of my very best friends that works in this town is, as I said before, from Ukraine, and she and I even competed against each other, not knowing that we did when we first met. That's how long ago we had met," Meier said.
For Meier, those bonds made Wednesday night's aviation disaster feel like a family tragedy.
"The entire ice-skating community is hurting," he said.
That hurt came to Meier, a former competitive skater and coach who is the operations manager at Richmond Ice Zone, on what had been his routine drive to work.
"I was listening to the news, and I heard about the plane crash, and right at the tail end, it was almost like an afterthought that there were figure skating people on there," said Meier. "And that it was in DC, I got a bad feeling. Just hoping, you know, so I texted a lot of people in DC to say, 'Please tell me you're alive.'"
Meier says he had just gotten out of his car when the messages started coming about Sasha Kirsanov, a fellow coach who was also a former skater, who was on that American Airlines flight.
"One of my students who trained here with me for 10 years texted me, and whenever you get a text that says, 'Call me,' and that's it, and there's been a tragedy, you know, 'Okay, I should probably call this girl,'" Meier said. "So I called her, and she was so upset. She was best friends with Sasha's daughter. She just wanted to let me know."
"For me, I know one of the coaches," said Cayce Jefferson. "I've gotten to work with him in the past, and now he's lost three of his students in the crash and a lot of friends."
Jefferson is also a coach and manager at Richmond Ice Zone and former competitor himself, and says he knows a lot of skaters and coaches will be using their work to honor their lost friends and competitors.
"As we're skating and performing, we use so much emotion and bring that out," Jefferson said. "And skating can be healing in that."
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky| Facebook| Instagram| X| Threads| TikTok| YouTube
