Putting on their skates again. Pushing forward. Trying to go on. That’s what young figure skaters Cyrianne McReynolds (13), Bobby MacNaio (16), and Gigi de Pasquale (14) are struggling to do. But the weight of loss is unbearable.
“They’re not here,” Cyrianne sobs. “And they would have been—at this exact time, they’d all be here…”
They—her friends who lost their lives in Wednesday’s horrific crash.
Every day, they practiced together. A half-dozen names come to mind, including their beloved coach. “We have to be strong and somehow get through this,” Cyrianne says, her voice trembling.
A Family Wiped Out
The trio was especially close to the Livingston family—parents Donna and Peter, along with their daughters Everly (11) and Alydia (14). They were all aboard American Eagle Flight 5342, which collided with an Army helicopter. The entire family—gone.
In total, 67 people lost their lives.
The tight-knit figure skating community was hit particularly hard. Fourteen skaters, many of them children, were on the doomed flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C. Parents and coaches perished as well.
A Community in Mourning
A veil of grief now hangs over the ice rink in Ashburn, near D.C. Everly and Alydia, known as the “ice skating sisters,” spent countless hours there. Their Instagram account, @ice_skating_sisters, had a devoted following. They had just competed at the national championships in Wichita. Their last Instagram post showed them beaming in front of the rink. “We were born for this—but is @usfigureskating ready for so many Livingstons at Nationals?” they had written.
“Alydia was my best friend,” Cyrianne says to US LIVE. “We spent so much time together outside of skating—sleepovers, Halloween parties. I was close to her sister, too.” Her mother scrolls through photos on her phone—images of the girls and their families, smiling and inseparable. “They were the kindest family you could imagine,” Bobby murmurs, lowering his head.
Skating Was Their Life—Then Came the Nightmare
The figure skating world is like one big family, bonded by grueling daily training in pursuit of Olympic dreams. Then came the nightmare. “I heard about the crash, that it was a flight from Wichita, and my heart stopped,” Bobby says. He spent hours on the phone, desperately trying to find out if anyone he knew was on board. “By morning, the worst was confirmed…”
Recovery Efforts Continue
By Friday evening, 41 bodies had been pulled from the frozen wreckage in the Potomac River. Rescue teams reported that large sections of the shattered fuselage would need to be lifted before more victims could be recovered.
It is the deadliest U.S. plane crash since November 12, 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed in New York, killing 260 people.
“It Could Have Been Prevented”
“We stand together to move forward,” Cyrianne says. “But it’s so hard…” Her voice carries not just grief but frustration. “This didn’t have to happen.”
