A colleague of Volyanskaya, who died in the plane crash in the U.S., told about the figure skater's life

Inna Ovsyannikova, a colleague of Soviet figure skater Inna Volyanskaya, who died in a plane crash in Washington, told Izvestia on January 31 about the athlete's life and her professional path.

According to her, she together with Volyanskaya came to the United States in 1996 to work as figure skating coaches. Ovsyannikova specified that they worked for a long time in the same organization, where the two of them coached young figure skaters.

"She was like a mom to all the kids, and so the main thing for us now is to give the kids hope. I told all the children that you should continue to work, because that's what Inna wanted," Ovsyannikova noted.

According to her colleague, Volyanskaya literally "lived at the rink." The children loved her as a coach, often went for walks outside the ice arena and spent a lot of time together.

"Such a tragedy happened. We don't know how to get through it all. But I am now gaining strength and trying to continue the work that Inna all her students wanted to do," Ovsyannikova added.

Interrupted flight: Russian figure skaters were among the dead in the plane crash in the USA

Yevgeniya Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board, the names of the other passengers are being investigated

Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that the plane crash in Washington killed three Russians. We are talking about athletes Evgenia Shishkova, Vadim Naumov and Inna Volyanskaya, who worked in the United States as figure skating coaches. There is also data that one more deceased person had a Russian passport. This information is in the process of verification.

On the night of January 30, a passenger plane American Airlines and a military helicopter Black Hawk collided near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, after the accident they fell into the Potomac River. There were 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the plane. According to the latest data, 41 bodies have been found, of which 28 have been identified.

US President Donald Trump reported that there were no survivors of the plane crash in Washington. He called the crash terrible and said the tragedy could have been avoided if the control tower had told the helicopter crew to change course.

CNN reported the day before that one of the flight recorders (black boxes) of the crashed passenger plane was recovered from the Potomac River.