After attending the United States Figure Skating Championships in Kansas, married couple Evgenia Shishkova, 53, and Vadim Naumov, 56, were on their way back to Washington, DC aboard Flight 5342.
The Naumovs did not bring their son, Maxim Naumov, who is a star skater for Team USA and is 23 years old. According to a member of the squad, he left Wichita on Monday.
Evgenia and Vadim reportedly told Maxim that they were “proud” of him after he finished in fourth place in the tournament a couple of days before the crash. This information was reported by an article that was published in Moscow.
Through a statement on social media that was published by Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, the oldest newspaper in Russia, the couple expressed their pride in Maxim, saying, “We are proud of you.”