A proud mom aboard the doomed American Airlines flight snapped a photo of her two beaming ice skater daughters, both Olympic hopefuls, just before it took off from Kansas on Wednesday.
Donna Livingston captured Everly, 14, and Alydia, 11, as well as herself and her husband, Peter, just before takeoff and sent the eerie photos to another US Figure Skating team mom.
Everly’s coach, Inna Volyanskaya, can be seen in the row behind them.
Figure skating sisters Everly (left) and Alydia Livingston aboard American Airlines flight 5342 Wednesday before takeoff. Donna Livingston/Jin Ah Longerbeam
Donna Livingston snapped a selfie with husband Peter before takeoff on Wednesday as the family headed home to Virginia. Donna Livingston/Jin Ah LongerbeamThe family of four and coach were among those killed when the plane collided with a military helicopter and plunged into the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, DC, Wednesday night.
“They were my little babies,” a tearful Jin Ah Longerbeam, who received the photo of the sisters from Donna, told ABC News Friday.
Longerbeam said she knew the family since the girls were “little rugrats” and that they called her son, Wolfe Jin, a brother.
Longerbeam remembered the girls’ parents as “really vivacious people.”
“They supported their girls’ dreams,” she said. “We did everything we can to try to make our kids dreams come true, and they did it every single moment and every single day.”
The family of four also rarely traveled together, she noted, but happened to on the fateful day as they flew home to Virginia from an ice skating development camp in Wichita.
Peter and Donna Livingston were remembered as “vivacious people” who “did everything” to support their daughters’ dreams. Instagram/Donna Livingston“Everly and Alydia were two of the brightest people at our rink,” Wolfe said of his teammates. “The community looked up to them.”
He was in Virginia when he heard news of the crash and drove with his mom to the airport, still hopeful that there were survivors. He brought jackets for the girls because he knew they’d be cold if they’d plunged into the Potomac’s frigid waters.
“He kept saying, ‘They’re gonna be cold … [we have to make] sure they’re warm,'” his emotional mother said.
Donna Livingston, (center) Everly, (left) Alydia and and Peter Livingston were killed in the crash. Instagram/Donna Livingston
Wreckage of a commercial plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter in the Potomac River following a mid-air collision in Washington, DC. PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS TAYLOR BACON/US COAST GUARD HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockThe girls were part of the Washington Figure Skating Club and known in the figure skating community as the “Ice Skating Sisters.”
“My goals are to actually be a part of Team USA and travel around the world,” Everly told FOX5 DC last year.
“It’s sad to see them have to go out like this because I know that their futures were so promising,” Wolfe said.
Fourteen figure skaters were among the 64 killed aboard the plane.
Three soldiers on the helicopter were also killed.
