A pair of women who graduated from universities in Massachusetts were among the 67 people killed when an American Airlines plane and an Army helicopter collided near Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night.
Elizabeth Anne Keys, a 33-year-old graduate of Tufts University, and Kiah Duggins, a 30-year-old graduate of Harvard Law School, both died when the wreckage of the two aircraft plummeted into the icy Potomac River following the fiery midair crash.
Keys, a native of Cincinnati, graduated from Tufts in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and community health, according to her LinkedIn page. She had been most recently working as an associate at the D.C.-based law practice Wilkinson Stekloff LLP.
Duggins, who grew up in Wichita, Kansas, earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 2021, where she served as president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, her LinkedIn page indicated.
Duggins, who had been most recently working as an attorney for the D.C.-based Civil Rights Corps, served as a White House intern during the Obama administration.
“As a student and lawyer, Kiah was known for her boundless enthusiasm for advancing justice for the most vulnerable, and for building community,” Interim Harvard Law School Dean John Goldberg wrote in a statement.
Goldberg noted Duggins’ defining characteristics were her optimism and empathy.
“What was perhaps most remarkable about Kiah was not what she did, but how she did it. Even up against the most entrenched challenges, Kiah radiated optimism, kindness, and empathy that inspired so many to work alongside her. As one of her classmates has written, ‘She was the best of us,’” Goldberg continued.
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau Acting Faculty Director Eloise Lawrence said Duggins was “all light.”
“Kiah was HLAB’s president through the worst days of the pandemic,” Lawrence explained. “Kiah led us all with her grace, her brilliance and her wonderful laugh. She always treated others with deep kindness and respect, but she was not afraid to make tough decisions or to tackle difficult problems. Kiah was beloved by her classmates, her teachers, and her clients alike. I had the great fortune of serving as Kiah’s direct supervisor in her clinical work. I observed her unfailing work ethic, her talent as a writer, thinker, and oral advocate. In short, she was an absolutely superb student attorney.”
A pair of young figure skaters from New England, their mothers, and two coaches were also killed in the crash.
The Skating Club of Boston identified the skaters as Jinna Han, 13, of Mansfield, Massachusetts, and Spencer Lane, 16, of Barrington, Rhode Island. Their mothers were identified as Jin Han and Christine Lane.
Two coaches at The Skating Club of Boston, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumo, were flying with the Hans and Lanes after departing a US Skating National Development Camp and Championship Competition in Wichita.
Chris Collins, a native of North Dighton, Massachusetts, also died in the crash. His family remembered him as a “beloved husband, son, brother, and uncle.”
More than 40 bodies have been pulled from the Potomac since the crash, the AP reported.
The NTSB is leading an “all-hands-on-deck” investigation into the crash.
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