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

U.S. figure skater Spencer Lane shared one last image of his trip to Wichita, Kansas, hours before the American Airlines plane on which he was flying crashed in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Jan. 29.

Spencer Lane, a 16-year-old figure skater from Barrington, Rhode Island, was among the victims of a plane crash near Ronald Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C. Wednesday night. He was traveling with his mother,