Figure skater Maxim Naumov has opened up on the heartbreaking final message he received from his parents before they were killed in the fatal Washington DC plane crash earlier this year.
Married Russian skaters Evgenia Shishkova, 52, and Vadim Naumov, 55, were among the 67 people who lost their lives when an American Airlinesflight collided with a Black Hawk helicopter midairon January 29.
No one survived the collision, which sent both the commercial airliner and Army helicopter plummeting into the frigid Potomac River. The bodies of Shishkova and Naumov were eventually foundtwo days on from the tragic accident.
Maxim, 23, was not onboardwith his parents and has since been dealing with unimaginable pain of losing both his mom and dad.
Almost two months on from that devastating night, Evgenia and Vadim’s son has revealed they changed flights earlier that evening to be on Flight 5342 and had asked him to pick them up from the airport when they landed.
‘My mom let me know that they’re switching flights and that if I could pick them up,’ he said in an interview with Today.
Maxim Naumov (left) has opened up on the heartbreaking final message he received from his parents before they were killed in the fatal Washington DC plane crash earlier this year
Married Russian skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were among the 67 killed
‘My mom always texts me and calls me as soon as they land.’
In the wake of the tragedy, Maxim has been cared for by Ekaterina ‘Katia’ Gordeeva – a former teammate and ‘very dear friend’ of his late parents.
Shishkova and Naumov competed alongside Gordeeva and her late husband Sergei Grinkov at the 1994 Olympics. Gordeeva and Grinkov claimed Olympic Gold in 1994 and 1988.
Shishkova and Naumov failed to make the podium at the Winter Games in Lillehammer.
However, the height careers came just one month later in 1994 when they were crowned World Champions in Chiba, Japan.
They also claimed silver and bronze in the 1995 and 1993 editions of the tournament respectively.
Following their own careers on the ice, Shishkova and Naumov reportedly moved to the US in 1998 where they began coaching.
They were travelling back to DCon Flight 5342 with a group of young skaters after attending the US Figure Skating Championships in Kansas.
Maxim has revealed his parents changed flights that evening and asked him to pick them up
Maxim had also competed in Kansas, where he placed fourth, but had left earlier than his parents on a separate flight.
‘They were beautiful people. They were so incredibly kind,’ Maxim added about his late parents.
‘The only way out [of the grief] is through. There’s no other way. There are no options but to keep going.
‘I don’t have the strength or the passion or the drive, or the dedication of one person anymore. It’s three people.’