PROVIDENCE, RI — A celebration of life will be held for a Skating Club of Boston member and his mother who were killed in the DC midair collision last month.
Spencer Lane and his mother, Christine Lane were on an American Airlines passenger jet coming back from a national development skating camp in Wichita, Kansas when their plane collided with an Army helicopter and fell into the frigid Potomac River, killing everyone on board.
According to their obituary, a celebration of life will be held next Sunday, February. 23, at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence.
Spencer and his mother were among the six members of the Skating Club of Boston who tragically lost their lives in the crash.
The victims also included renowned Russian figure skating coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who had won the pairs title at the 1994 World Championships, and 13-year-old Jinna Han from Mansfield and her mother.
Doug Zeghibe, CEO and executive director of the Skating Club of Boston called Spencer Lane and Jinna Han the “future of the sport” of figure skating.
In a statement, the Lane family shared they were devasted by the losses of Christine and Spencer.
“Christine exuded creativity throughout her life, using her formal graphic design training as a jumping-off point for seemingly endless creative pursuits across areas such as photography, quilting, knitting, and more. She brought even greater passion to her role as a mother to Spencer and his brother Milo. She was also a lover of animals, and we lost track of how many dogs she helped place in loving adoptive homes,” the statement read. “Spencer can only be described as a force of nature. You simply could not stop him if he decided he wanted to do something. There is no better example of this than his remarkable skating journey, which we are heartbroken to see end too soon. He truly loved it, and his ascent from basic Learn to Skate classes to U.S. Figure Skating’s National Development Team in just a few short years was unprecedented. We are so grateful that his last week was filled with joy and surrounded by his beloved Skating Club of Boston and the U.S. Figure Skating family.”
A GoFundMe has been sent up to support those affected by the crash.
The celebration of life for Spencer and Christine will begin at 2 p.m., and attendees are encouraged to dress comfortably and colorfully in their memory.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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