VENICE, Fla. — A Southwest Florida man is among the many victims of the tragic plane crash near Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.
Fox 4 spoke with the mother of 40-year-old Mikey Stovall, a Venice resident, who is devastated by the loss. She told Senior Reporter, Emily Young, that "Mikey" as she called him, was a loving father and husband. He leaves behind an 11-year-old son Jake and his wife of more than a decade.
Before the crash, Mikey was on a hunting trip in Kansas with six friends. Stovall’s mother sent photos of Mikey to Fox 4, including one taken earlier that morning, just before he boarded the flight from Kansas to D.C.
The investigation into the crash between the passenger jet and Black Hawk helicopter is still in the early stages. 64 people were on board the American Airlines flight headed into Reagan National Airport and 3 soldiers on the helicopter when the crash happened. Emergency crews report everyone is presumed dead.
Other victims identified in the crash include fourteen members of a tight-knit figure skating community in Northern Virginia, Ashburn Ice House General Manager Rob Lorenzen said at a Friday news conference.
Lorenzen said he didn’t have a list of confirmed names, adding the victims were members of the ice rink in Ashburn and the MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Arlington.
“Many children spend long hours here practicing daily, which means their parents spend long hours here, which means we get to know the families on a very intimate level,” said Lorenzen.
“Our reach is widespread amongst this skating community and our connections are regional to the many skaters who have been affected by this tragedy,” he added. “This is such a terrible tragedy.”
The US Army has released the names of two of the three soldiers onboard the Black Hawk military helicopter that collided with a passenger plane on Wednesday night.
Ryan O’Hara, 28, from Lilburn, Georgia, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, from Great Mills, Maryland, died in the crash. Eaves was the instructor pilot on board and had about 1,000 flight hours, according to Army official Jonathan Koziol.
The third soldier’s name is not being released at the request of their family, but it is known that they were co-piloting the Black Hawk and had about 500 flight hours, according to the US Army.
O’Hara is being remembered by a fellow service member as “one of the finest, most disciplined, committed trainers” he has ever worked with.
Josh Muehlendorf, Chief Warrant Officer 5 with the US Army, worked with O’Hara when he was a senior instructor pilot of the battalion O’Hara was in.
“I’ve flown dozens of flights with Ryan O’Hara, trying to tap into his expertise on Hoist operation,” Muehlendorf said.