DC plane crash widow reveals fateful choice that killed husband and saved her life

A grief-stricken widow who lost her husband on American Airlines Flight 5342 when it crashed in Washington DC has revealed they made a spontaneous decision on who would be on the flight.

Natalya Gudin and her husband Alexandr Kirsanov coached two young figure skaters but only one of them would accompany the pair to Kansas for the National Development Camp for figure skating.

Her husband was the one who ended up making the trip alongside the two kids, who all lost their lives in the midair collision.

Speaking with ABC News, Gudin said: ‘I lost everything. I lost my husband. I lost my students. I lost my friends.’

Gudin last spoke with her husband on Wednesday afternoon when he was at the gate at the airport in Wichita, Kansas.

Kirsanov told her: ‘It’s time for boarding’, before making a plan to talk again once he had touched down at Reagan National Airport – but the call never came.

Gudin told the outlet that she later heard from the mother of one of the other figure skaters about the crash and she travelled to the capital hoping for good news.

On Thursday morning she found out that her husband and their students had died, after officials said their rescue mission was now a matter of recovery.

The American Airlines plane smashed into a US Army Black Hawk helicopter as it came into land at Reagan National Airport just before 9pm on Wednesday.

The aircraft collided in a huge fireball that was visible on dashcams of cars driving on highways that snake past the airport, and crashed into the river.

Sixty-four people – 60 passengers and four crew – were onboard and all died, officials said.

Three soldiers had been inside the helicopter at the time of the incident and had been on a training mission who also didn’t make it.

At least 28 bodies have been recovered, according to DC Fire Chief John Donnelly said.

The pilots of the American Eagle jet were Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, and First Officer Samuel Lilley, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed.

And both flight attendants who were on that tragic flight have been revealed as Ian Epstein and Danasia Elder.

The two youths that Kirsanov had been travelling with were dance partners Angela Yang and Sean Kay.

They were members of The University of Delaware Figure Skating Club, according to social media posts from the organization.

Yang shared several pictures from her time in Wichita just hours before the doomed flight.

‘Had so so much fun at camp!!! I’m really gonna miss my friends and all the great coaches! I can’t wait for next year!’ she said.

‘It was a lot of fun watching all the skaters at Kansas! I had a lot of fun sitting with my friends watching amazing skaters! I wish I could watch it all over again!’

The duo won first place in several categories in the 2025 Midwestern Sectional Singles & U.S. Ice Dance in Plano, Texas, in November.

Yang wore a beautiful pink sequin dress while they skated in the juvenile dance final.

She celebrated the results on Instagram, captioning her post, ‘I am so happy with our results at our first finals together!’

US Figure Skating confirmed that several skaters, coaches and their family members were on board the flight, and had been returning home from the National Development Camp, which is held in conjunction with the national championships.

‘We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts. We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available,’ the sport governing body said in a statement.

A preliminary report has said that air traffic control staffing at the airport was ‘not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.

Chronic understaffing at air traffic control towers is nothing new , with only 19 employed at DC in 2023 – but the report found it complicated procedures that night.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker resigned the day before Donald Trump took office, well short of the end of his five-year term that started in October 2023 – meaning that there was no head of the federal agency when the terror unfolded last night.

Whitaker frequently clashed with SpaceX owner Elon Musk over the FAA’s oversight of rocket launches – who called for him to resign last September amid his frustrations with complying with FAA paperwork and safety and environmental concerns.

President Trump spent the majority of his 11am press conference blaming supposed DEI programs at the FAA for the crash – before appointing Christopher Rocheleau as the acting head of the agency.