6 pastors react to American Airlines crash into Potomac River

Last updated: 2025/01/31 at 2:57 AM

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By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Thursday, January 30, 2025

An American Airlines plane prepares to take off as investigators carry pieces of wreckage from the waters of the Potomac River after American Airlines flight 5342 on approach to Reagan National Airport crashed into the river after colliding with a U.S. Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. Recovery operations pulled 28 bodies from the river into which both crashed. | ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

As America grapples with the nation’s deadliest commercial airline crash since 2001, after a midair collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army helicopter left 67 people dead late Wednesday night, pastors across the country are now sharing prayers and other words of comfort as profiles of the victims slowly emerge online.

The city of Wichita, Kansas — from where American Airlines Flight 5342 departed at about 6:20 p.m. with 64 people on board before crashing midair with a Black Hawk helicopter with three soldiers on board near Reagan National Airport — hosted a prayer meeting on Thursday.

The Rev. Ben Staley, pastor of congregational care at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita, urged members of his community to “double down on caring for each other.”

“All of us are going to know people who know people,” he said in an interview with NBC News affiliate KSHB. “So it’s a great time to double down on caring for each other, upholding each other, holding hands, maybe a little more than we used to. And continuing to pray and depend on the Lord in this time.”

While investigators of the crash haven’t yet disclosed the identities of the victims of the crash, U.S. Figure Skating, the national governing body for the sport of figure skating, said in a statement that several members of the figure skating community were on the flight.

“U.S. Figure Skating can confirm that several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which collided with a helicopter yesterday evening in Washington, D.C. These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas,” officials at the figure skating body said.

Executive director and CEO of the Skating Club of Boston, Doug Zeghibe, told WCVB that six people affiliated with his club were among 14 people from the U.S. Figure Skating community on the flight. He identified skater Spencer Lane, 16, his mother, Molly; skater Jinna Han, 13, and her mother, Jin; as well as coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

“Skating is a very close and tight-knit community. These kids and their parents — they are here at our skating facility in Norwood, six, sometimes seven days a week. It is a close, tight bond, and I think for all of us, we have lost family,” Zeghibe told the news outlet.

Prior to Wednesday’s crash, the last deadly U.S. commercial passenger airline crash was in February 2009, when Continental Flight 3407 crashed into a house as it was arriving in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground, CNBC reported.

Wednesday’s crash was also the deadliest commercial passenger airline crash since American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 that crashed shortly after it took off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in November 2001. All 260 people on the flight destined for the Dominican Republic were killed, along with five others on the ground in Queens.

Here are five more reactions from pastors and Christian leaders to the crash.

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