'Unimaginable grief': A tight-knit skating community reels after plane crash kills five

ASHBURN, Va. – Skaters, hockey players, friends and family members filed into Ashburn Ice House on Friday morning, some bearing flowers or signs to add to a growing memorial honoring the lives of their ice mates who died Wednesday in a deadly plane crash near Reagan Washington National Airport.

Dozens of colorful bouquets and stuffed animals including koalas, bears and Squishmallows were piled high atop a table in the lobby of the ice rink, where skaters could be seen circling around the ice. The toll the loss has taken on the community was visible, as teary-eyed mourners entered and exited the rink.

“I have a lot of friends here," said 10-year-old Ella Li, who accompanied her father and took flowers to the rink she has been going to for three years. "It's like really fun to skate, but after I lost some of them it was really sad.”

The Ice House lost at least five regulars in the fiery explosion, including a coach, two teen skaters and their parents, according to friends and associates. The rink has not confirmed the names or number of those lost but acknowledged the impact their community suffered.

"It is with heavy hearts that we have learned that our figure skating community has been directly affected," the rink said in a statement. “The figure skating community is a close-knit worldwide family and our hearts go out to all affected by this terrible tragedy.”

Coach Inna Volyanskaya

Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam identified Ashburn coach Inna Volyanskaya, a former competitor for both Belarus and Russia, as one of the crash victims. Before moving to the United States and taking up coaching, Volyanskaya, 59, skated with Valery Spiridonov, whose son, Anton, now represents the U.S. in ice dance.

Volyanskaya, who was also affiliated with the Washington Figure Skating Club, also participated in "Disney on Ice" productions before becoming a coach in 2002, working with a wide range of skaters from novices to elite competitors, according to her online biography with the rink.

In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Volyanskaya congratulated two of her skaters for their second consecutive year participating in the U.S. Figure Skating's national development camp. The three-day camp followed the national championships, which ran through Sunday, and is designed to help U.S. Figure Skating better identify and support young talent.

"So proud of all their hard work and training they have done to get here," Volyanskaya wrote alongside a photo of herself with skaters Franco Aparicio and Everly Livingston.

Students, Olympic skaters, families: A tribute to lives lost in the DC plane crash

Livingston family tragedy

Livingston's family was all onboard the flight toward their Ashburn home following the Wichita event. Everly, 11, was raised by Comcast business executive Donna Livingston and real estate agent Peter Livingston alongside her 14-year-old sister Alydia.

The two sisters began skating before either of them turned 5, following in the footsteps of Peter, who skated when he was younger. Both parents put their daughters' passion above their own careers ? from near-constant traveling to finding private ice rinks, according to close friend Dalal Badri.

The sisters competed across the country, both earning several juvenile championships and medals that go along with it. They thrived at both figure and roller skating, mastering different disciplines from solo dancing to freestyling.

“Everly was such a shy girl, but so focused and she just opened up and lit up when she got on the ice,” Badri told USA TODAY. “Alydia was just always laughing and joking and smiling. She would always pop a joke, even if she had a straight face and was the kind of person that always wanted to make others laugh.”

Beyond Ashburn, a skating mecca

Li's father, David, said he and his daughter spent Thursday with other skating families visiting other local rinks where memorials have been set up. He said the area is somewhat of a mecca for skating, and a number of very accomplished coaches and high level skaters have dedicated their lives to the sport.

When news of the crash broke, Li said fellow parents in the community realized that skaters they knew were due to return from the training camp in Wichita and began texting frantically to find out if they were on the plane.

“It's hard," he said. "But fortunately, the figure skating community is very tight. It's a tight knit community and we’ve been supporting each other.”

Contributing: Tom Schad and Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DC plane crash killed at least five from Ashburn Ice House skating