The January 29 mid-air airliner and U.S. Army helicopter collision took the lives of young figure skaters Everly and Alydia Livingston and their parents, Peter and Donna.
Authorities confirmed deaths three hours after the crash. Since they discovered no survivors, the search and rescue efforts looked bleak.
By afternoon, all 67 onboard were presumed dead.
Therefore, this crash became the second time U.S. Figure Skating members died in a plane crash since the 1961 Sabena Flight 548 disaster.
The Livingston Family Was Returning Home After Attending An Ice Skating Camp For Young Olympic Hopefuls!
Late Everly and Alydia Livingston were passionate and talented figure skaters from Ashburn, Virginia.
In the skating community, the two were called ‘ice skating sisters.’ Notwithstanding their brief lives, the sisters achieved significant success and enjoyed considerable success at such early ages.
Everly and Alydia Livingston represented the United States team in figure and inline skating, frequently ranking first.
While Everly won bronze in the 2025 U.S. Intermediate category, Alydia took gold in the 2024 US Juvenile category.
Moreover, in 2024 and 2025, both sisters won Regional Championships and received Eastern Section Champions honors.
Similarly, the Livingston sisters excelled in Theatre on Ice (TOI), winning silver in the 2024 and 2025 U.S. TOI championships and gold at the 2023 U.S. World Skate Inline Championships.
Despite their young age, their dedication and prowess left a lasting impression on the figure skating world.
Their passion was evident in all the Instagram posts, which captured every victory, performance, and participation.
This would not have been possible without their parents, Peter and Donna Livingston, who fostered an ideal environment for the girls to flourish and polish their skills.
While their mother, Donna, was a business executive, their father, Peter, worked in real estate.
Peter enjoyed his job as a real estate agent since it allowed him to work flexible hours and be present to help his kids practice for ice skating competitions.
Hence, this demonstrates how much Peter committed his time and cared for his daughters.
The Livingstons were a happy family, anticipating celebrating more milestones together.
However, their happiness was short-lived as the family succumbed to a mid-air collision over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.
The Livington family were the victims who lost their lives in Wednesday’s devastating plane crash near Reagan National Airport.
They were on board American Airlines Flight 5342, returning from a figure skating camp in Wichita, Kansas.
However, on their way home to Ashburn, Virginia, their airplane crashed with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in mid-air, killing 67 people.
On Friday, January 31, Peter’s friend Ted Boyke told PEOPLE that his late friend “put his family first” and that Donna and his girls were “everything to him.”
“Pete was a guy who was passionate about ice skating or about passing it on to his daughters. He was the type of guy who would come up with a wild plan and you’d say, ‘That sounds great, but it will never happen.’ And then he would go out and achieve it.”
“when Everly was born, Peter talked about building an ice rink in the backyard and getting her started ice skating. I thought, ‘That’s incredible, but that will never work. How can you have an ice rink in your backyard?’ He not only did it … but then his daughters went on to be elite ice skaters.”
“He was known for every winter [for] putting down a tarp, boarding it off, pouring water into an ice rink that would freeze in the Virginia winters, and his daughters would practice there. During COVID, they were able to practice that way when the ice rinks were closed temporarily.”
“What I’m trying to take from this tragic loss is that if you have a wild dream or you’re passionate about something in life, just go for it. That’s what Pete did, and that’s the example I want to follow.”
Ted Boyke
In Case You Didn’t Know
- The airplane, which crashed on January 29, 2025, was a Bombardier CRJ700, a regional jet built in September 2004 and operated by PSA Airlines under the American Eagle brand since 2013.
- While the airliner carried 60 passengers and four crew members, the helicopter had a crew of three military personnel.
- Several U.S. Figure Skating athletes, staff, and family members were on board, including Russian coaches Evgenia Shishkova, Vadim Naumov, Inna Volyanskaya, and Alexandr Kirsanov, alongside 15 other passengers connected to figure skating.