BOSTON — A tribute and remembrance ceremony was held Wednesday night at the figure skating world championships for the 28 members of the sport’s community who lost their lives in the American Airlines plane crash on Jan. 29.
The group was returning from the U.S. figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas. A total of 67 people were killed when the regional jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
Doug Lane, who lost his son, Spencer, and wife, Christine, in the crash, briefly addressed the crowd at TD Garden on behalf of the affected families. Spencer Lane was a promising young skater with the Skating Club of Boston.
“They haven’t really invented the vocabulary to talk about the grief that we’re all feeling,” he said of his family’s loss.
Lane also advocated for an increase in aviation safety.
“The final hope I’ll share today is that we can prevent something like this from ever happening again,” he said. “Some accidents are unavoidable. This one was not, even a lay person like me can easily identify the systematic breakdowns that allowed this to happen. But rather than looking for places to place blame, I hope that we can work with our elected officials to make air travel safer for everyone and for all of our families.”
Spencer Lane had attended the national development camp in Wichita, and had been joined there by his mother, before they returned on the flight. They were two of six affiliated with Skating Club of Boston who died in the crash.
Spencer was featured prominently in Wednesday’s ceremony, held ahead of the pairs short program. It included a video tribute and speeches by International Skating Union president Jae Youl Kim, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Interim U.S. Figure Skating chief executive officer Samuel Auxier also shared a poem memorializing the skaters.
“Someone once told me time is a great healer,” Kim said. “But for those who have experienced deep loss, we know that time does not simply erase pain. For many of us, it feels like we are frozen in time. Yet, in the spirit of unity and resilience, we stand together to support, to uplift and to remember.
“This year the championships hold even deeper meaning. They serve as a tribute, honoring the incredible lives, talent and passion of those we lost, but those who will forever be part of our skating family.”
Earlier in the day, while waiting for her scores after her short program, reigning U.S. national champion Amber Glenn held up a T-shirt that read “Skate with their spirit” with cartoon images of those who died
Defending world champion Ilia Malinin, who opens his competition Thursday, said he will dedicate his performance to the victims. He trained alongside three who died — Franco Aparicio, Everly Livingston and Alydia Livingston – at the Washington Figure Skating Club.
“[I] really just have this mindset of skating for them now,” Malinin told reporters last week.
