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The Wednesday evening midair collision in Washington D.C. between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet brought stark reminders to Winchester residents of another airline tragedy that claimed the lives of a local family and the entire 1961 world team of U.S. figure skating.
The Jan. 29 crash just outside Reagan National Airport claimed the lives of six members of the Skating Club of Boston, and a total of 67 people in all.
Doug Zebhibe, executive director of the Skating Club of Boston, said the skating community lost part of its family.
“Last night and into this morning, we were informed of a pretty horrific tragedy. Fourteen skaters returning home from the national development camp at Wichita, Kansas put on by U.S. Figure Skating were lost a plane crash,” he said. “Of those 14, six were from the Skating Club of Boston. Two coaches, two teenage athletes, and the athletes’ moms.”
Holding back tears Zebhibe added, “Skating is a very close and tight knit community. These kids and their parents they’re here at our facility in Norwood six and sometimes seven days a week. It’s a close tight bond and I think for all of us we have lost family.”
Winchester tragedy
As news of the Washington D.C. crash spread, Winchester residents immediately took to the residents Facebook page, reminding others of the 1961 crash that killed nine-time U.S. national figure skating champion Maribel Vinson-Owen and her two daughters Maribel Owen, 20, winner of the 1961 U.S. Nationals Championship, and her sister, Laurence Owen, 16, winner of the 1961 U.S. figure skating championship.
All 18 members of the United States Figure Skating National Team were killed on Feb. 15, 1961 when the airplane they were on crashed in Belgium while attempting to land. The team was on its way to the World Championships in Prague.
Also killed in the accident were 16 officials, judges, coaches and family members, as well as 27 other passengers and 11 flight crew members.
For years, officials were left puzzled by what caused the accident, but according to The New York Daily News, “investigators eventually determined the jet’s stabilizers were probably to blame.”
In a post titled “thinking of the Vinson Owen family today,” one resident responded the Washington incident “brings the whole story back.”
“Was one of the first things that came to mind when I heard members of the skating team were onboard [sic] the plane that crashed,” another resident said.
One resident shared a memory of growing up on Woodside Road and “often seeing the Owen’s [sic] girls practicing on Winter Pond early in the morning.”
Another added that many Winchester High School grads of the late 50’s and early 60’s would find the recent crash “eerily similar” to the Belgium accident.
At the Vinson-Owen Elementary School, which is named after the family, the sign entering the school’s parking lot has a pair of figure skates commemorating the lost skaters.
Reactions by skating community
Stoneham native and two-time Olympic champion Nancy Kerrigan choked back tears as she spoke at the Skating Club of Boston, saying she came to the club to share in the grief.
“Not sure how to process it which is why I’m here,” Kerrigan said. “We just wanted to be here and be part of our community. Anytime I’ve been able to be here and watch them grow. The kids here really work hard, their parents work hard to be here. I feel for the athletes, the skaters, and their families, but anyone that was on that plane, not just the skaters because it’s just such a tragic event.
“We’ve been through tragedies before as Americans, as people and we are strong, and I guess it’s how we respond to it and so my response is to be with people I care about and I love and I needed support,” Kerrigan added.
Maribel Vinson-Owen, left, Maribel Owen with her partner Chuck Foster in 1956 and Laurence Owen were all killed in a plane crash in 1961, but are remembered for their skating prowess. COURTESY PHOTOS/OLYMPEDIA
Just as it did in the aftermath of the 1961 crash, the Skating Club of Boston described the impact of this type of tragedy on skating’s future.
“This will have long reaching impact for our skating community,” Zebhibe said. “The two coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, they were the top coaches, they were the 1994 world pair champions and were very much a part of our building the competitive skating program at the Skating Club of Boston. It’s a major personal loss but also a loss to our skating community.
“Almost half of everybody on board that 1961 plane was from this club,” he continued. “It had long-reaching implications for the skating club and for the sport in this country because when you lose coaches like this, you lose the future of the sport as well. It’s been a long time in redeveloping it and I personally feel that this club has just now, almost 60 years later, been coming out of the shadow of that 1961 crash. So, this is particularly devastating. “
The two coaches were a married couple and were recruited to the Skating Club of Boston in 2017. Their son, Max, was also competing, but returned to Boston after his Jan. 27 competition.
Source material was used from the following publications:
Winchester Star/Wicked Local story on Historical Society talk on Maribel Vinson Owen and her influence on American Figure Skating.
Winchester News editor Nell Escobar Coakley contributed to this report.
