The European figure skating championships carried on Thursday, even as the skating world mourned athletes who died when an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C.

The European figure skating championships carried on Thursday in Tallin, Estonia, even as the skating world mourned athletes who died in an aircraft collision near Washington, D.C.

People reported that “several members” of the U.S. figure skating team were onboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which plummeted into the Potomac River after colliding with a Black Hawk Sikorsky H-60 helicopter around 8:45 p.m. local time as the plane approached for landing at Ronald Reagan International Airport.

Global figure skating's tight-knit community was in mourning on Thursday after a passenger jet crash in Washington killed two former world champion coaches and young stars from the next generation