The incident has been likened to the infamous 1961 crash of Sabena Flight 548, in which the entire United States figure skating team, which was travelling to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia, were killed. This time, almost an entire generation of young elite skaters has been wiped out.

The young figure skaters whose lives were cut tragically short when an American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday night were just beginning their journeys to stardom.

Spencer Lane, a figure skater, was on the doomed plane that crashed in the Potomac, reports say. He posted a photo to Instagram hours before.