‘I lost everything’: Wife of skating coach killed in DC plane crash speaks out

(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.”

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