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Ice skater Spencer Lane‘s father is opening up about his living “nightmare” after losing both his son and wife in that American Airlines plane crash.
On Wednesday night, the 16-year-old figure skater — who posted from the plane — was returning home from Kansas with his fellow U.S. Figure Skating teammates and other community members, including his mother Christine. Sadly, the plane struck a US Army Black Hawk helicopter just feet from the runway. They crashed into the Potomac River, and there are no survivors.
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Speaking to WPRI on Thursday, Spencer’s father Douglas Lane opened up about the unimaginable loss, explaining that he and his wife adopted Spencer and another son Milo from South Korea. He called Spencer a “force of nature” since his 2008 adoption, noting that he only just got into figure skating three years ago after watching Nathan Chen at the Olympics. Douglas recalled:
“Even though people train since a small child … he started and learned to skate … and three years later, he’s in Wichita, Kansas … training with former world champions. He was just a phenom and just loved it. It wasn’t anyone pushing him. He was just somebody who loved it and had natural talent.”
Very impressive. Spencer was a part of the Skating Club of Boston, which his father referenced, adding:
“He went up to Boston every single day, did high school online and was just all in on figure skating and was great at it.”
Douglas went on to say his son was “just loved by everyone,” adding that the death of the other skaters and coaches was “just devastating.”
Meanwhile, he said his wife was a “beautiful, creative person” who was “wonderful [and] caring.” She had many talents, such as graphic design, photography, and a deep love of animals that led her to volunteer at various rescues:
“For Christine, just the amount of people from the community in Rhode Island I’ve already heard from today that she’s touched, whether it was screening them to adopt the dog that they love or helping them with a sewing project, or whatever, she was one of those people that could plug in anywhere and connect with people and build a real bond.”
Now, Douglas and Milo “are kinda left here to figure out the path forward, but we’ll do that.” The grieving father reflected:
“It kind of just felt like a nightmare and was hoping I would wake up and it would be that, but it’s a new reality that we have to work through together.”
We simply cannot imagine the pain he must be feeling. This is such a difficult way to lose any loved one, let alone two. We’ll be thinking of them as they mourn…
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[Image via WPRI/U.S. Figure Skating/YouTube]
English (US) ·