A 16-year-old ice skater, who tragically died in the DC plane crash, landed one of skating’s hardest moves just hours before his death.
Cory Haynos, of Virginia, landed the triple axel for the second time in his career on Wednesday morning – just mere hours before he would find himself on the doomed American Airlines Flight 5342.
The triple axel – which sees an athlete spin in the air three times – was first performed by then-20-year-old Canadian Vern Taylor, who landed it in a 1978 competition.
One of the most famous skaters to land the difficult move is Tonya Harding, who was the first American woman to do it in 1991 at the age of 20.
Haynos had successfully landed the move in December, according to The New York Times, and landed it a second time on Wednesday morning.
The moment was a big one for him as the development camp’s coaches were also there to scout future talents.
‘He was so happy, just so happy,’ US Figure Skating Coach Mark Mitchell told The Times. He had watched the young man ‘fighting’ to do it all week and was just as overjoyed as the skater to see him complete it.
Haynos, his parents Roger and Stephanie Haynos, and several other skaters and their families and coaches from the camp died Wednesday evening as their flight and an Army Black Hawk collided midair.
Cory Haynos, of Virginia, landed the triple axel for the second time in his career just mere hours before he would find himself on the doomed AA Flight 5342. (pictured: Haynos at a November competition)
Haynos, pictured with his parents Roger and Stephanie Haynos, successfully completed the triple axel in December before landing it again on Wednesday. All died during the DC plane crash
One of the most famous skaters to land the difficult move is Tonya Harding (pictured in 2018), who was the first American woman to do it in 1991 at the age of 20
Haynos was one of the 60 passengers and four flight crew aboard Flight 5342.
Brielle Beyer, 12, was also a part of the same Northern Virginia club as Haynos. Ashburn Ice House Coach Inna Volyanskaya also died on the flight.
Fellow skaters who also died are: Spencer Lane, 16; Jinna Han, 13; Alydia and Everly Livingston, 11 and 14; Sean Kay, Angela Yang, and coaches Evgenia Shishkova, 53; Vadim Naumov, 56; and Alexandr Kirsanov.
At least 40 bodies have been recovered from the air collision that happened over the Potomac River.
The bodies of all four flight crew members – including one who was mere months away from a promotion and wedding – were also recovered from the debris on Thursday.
The bodies of two of the three soldiers who were flying in the helicopter have also been recovered.
CBS News reported that a dive team had recovered one of the two black boxes from the plane.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both the helicopter and the airplane had been flying normal flight patterns.
Several skaters from the same Kansas competition were also on the flight, which had no survivors, including Spencer Lane, 16 (middle back), coaches Evgenia Shishkova, 53 (middle front); Vadim Naumov, 56 (right)
Jinna Han, 13, also died on the flight after it collided with an Army Black Hawk over the Potomac Rivers in Washington DC on Wednesday
New Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter crew was ‘fairly experienced’ and was performing an ‘annual proficiency training flight.’
‘They did have night vision goggles,’ Hegseth said in a video posted to X.
The Pentagon, Department of Defense, and the Army have launched investigations.
President Donald Trump has blamed diversity and inclusion for one of the deadliest plane crashes in US history.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said the tragedy was entirely preventable as he slammed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) recruiting practices in federal agencies.
He added that he had some ‘pretty good ideas’ of how the disaster occurred and vowed to make sure it would never happen again.
Trump then said he put ‘safety’ first while Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden prioritized politics and called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a ‘disaster’ in an extraordinary attack on previous administrations.
‘He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground and he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bulls**t,’ Trump said of Buttigieg.
Then he insisted that federal agencies need to be hiring based on intelligence rather than on diversity. He added that Air Traffic Controllers need to be ‘geniuses.’
