Olympic medalist Scott Hamilton recalls final meeting with champion Russian skaters days before plane crash

"For this to happen just days after those championships were over is just devastating, shocking - it just doesn't make any sense. . . .We're no stranger to tragedy but this was just beyond devastation."

Officials have said that 14 skaters, coaches and family members were aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 when it collided with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport, near D.C., at around 9 p.m. local time. 

"I actually sat with them for a nice visit in Wichita," Hamilton recalled Friday."

"To think that they're gone is, um, I can't wrap my head around the last 36 hours. It's just been devastating, and the loss is just beyond description. My heart is shattered." 

Shishkova and Naumov married in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1995, and they moved to Connecticut. They had a son, Maxim, who competed in men's singles in the U.S. He was in Kansas but did not travel back with his parents. The Russian pair were coaches for the Skating Club of Boston.

Sixty passengers and four crew members on the American Airlines plane and three soldiers aboard a training flight on the helicopter are presumed dead. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.