"The figure skating community is a family, and this loss is beyond words. My thoughts are with their families, friends and everyone affected. We will never forget them." U.S. Figure Skating has said in a statement that "several members" of its community were aboard the flight,

Ilia Malinin, the reigning world and national champion in men's figure skating, shared a message on social media after the crash on the Potomac.

Ilia Malinin topped the Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships men's short program by the largest margin in history.

Ilia Malinin doesn’t back down. When all of his jumping passes at last month’s Grand Prix Final were judged to contain under-rotation, he still had a sweatshirt made that reproduced the scoresheet, a memento of his having tried a free skate program with unprecedented difficulty.

"I'm heartbroken by the tragic loss of my fellow skaters in this devastating accident," Malinin wrote on Instagram

World champion Ilia Malinin landed a record-tying six quadruple jumps to win his third consecutive U.S. figure skating title. Malinin, a 20-year-old from the D.C. area, landed a quad flip, quad Axel (a jump no other skater has ever landed), two quad Lutzes, quad toe loop and quad Salchow in Sunday’s free skate in Wichita, Kansas.

He might've planned to land seven quads, but the reigning World champion romped to another national crown by hitting on six of them.

Figure skaters and their families and coaches were reportedly on board a flight that crashed near Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

The victims in the doomed plane that crashed in the Potomac include U.S. and Russian figure skaters, reports say.

The tight-knit figure skating community was rocked Wednesday when an American Airlines flight carrying athletes, parents and coaches from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River.

World champion Ilia Malinin cruised to his third consecutive U.S. Figure Skating Championship on Sunday, landing six of his seven planned quad jumps in the free skate.

Among those athletes competing in Wichita are former and hopefully future Olympians, many of whom are also defending national champions.