Delaware father speaks out after son, wife killed in DC place crash

NEWARK, Del. (WPVI) -- An American Airlines regional jet went down in the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after colliding with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, with no survivors.

Sixty-four people were on board the plane, which departed from Wichita, Kansas. Three soldiers were on the helicopter.

Among those killed were several members of the Delaware skating community, including Vitali Kay's son and wife.

Sean, 11, and his mother Julia, were on the doomed flight from Kansas following a skating camp.

READ MORE: Members of Pennsylvania skating club, Delaware coach among Washington, D.C. plane crash victims

"Imagine a nurse who works five nightshifts in a row and comes back to the ice rink and spends all day with the kids," Vitali described his wife's devotion to their family.

Sean was the second oldest of four. All of the Kay children compete in figure skating.

Sean also loved roller coasters, the guitar and his favorite band, Metallica. His skills on the ice, his father said were unmatched. "He definitely had enough energy and drive."

Sean's skating partner, 11-year-old Angela Yang, and her mother Lilly were also killed on that flight.

A GoFundMe is set up for Vitali Kay and his surviving three children.

And another GoFundMe was created for Alexandr "Sasha" Kirsanov, a former coach of the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club. He also died in the crash leaving behind his wife and teenage daughter.

"There's a lot of broken people. Just a grief I've never seen," said Joel McKeever.

"There's a gaping hole in our skating community," said Michele Dumler-McKeever

Both Michele Dumler-McKeever and her husband, Joel McKeever, are high-performance coaches at the Fred Rust Arena, where Kirsanov coached.

"He came here as a young Russian with just the clothes on his back," said Joel McKeever.

A memorial remains in the lobby of the rink where many came to heal and support.

On Sunday at 10 a.m., there will be a memorial open to the public at the Fred Rust Arena on the University of Delaware's campus.