Figure skaters and coaches returning from the U.S. national championships were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter Wednesday.

Jinna Han had a passion for figure skating that was evident to everyone at the Skating Club of Boston — including when she spoke to NBC10 Boston about her Olympic dreams in 2022.

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.