The young figure skaters whose lives were cut tragically short Wednesday night when an American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River were just beginning their journeys to stardom.

The ties to Boston conjured up painful memories for Nathan Birch, a Baltimore skater who grew up training at that very same club. He remembered seeing memorials from the 1961 crash, which killed several Boston club members, on the walls and in an upstairs lounge.

Tara Lipinski and Tonya Harding were among those in mourning after learning figure skaters were in Wednesday's plane crash near Washington D.C.