Figure skatingU.S. figure skating tragedy still resonates, 50 years later

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The 18-member U.S. skating team and 16 coaches, officials, friends and family members were among the 72 people aboard a Sabena Boeing jet airliner that crashed near Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 15, 1961. All on board were killed. (Associated Press)

The setting was New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, where Canada's 1961 figure skating team was hanging out with their American counterparts while waiting to board planes to take them to the world championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

It was Valentine's Day and the mood was light according to Canadian pairs champion Debbi Wilkes, who was travelling to Prague with partner Guy Revell and with her mother. 

There was good-natured banter between members of the two rival teams. 

Wilkes recalled the Canadians feigning aggravation that their flight would leave earlier but arrive later than the Americans' to their final destination.

The North Americans were comfortable in each other's company, so much so that when it was discovered that Mrs. Wilkes' visa for Czechoslovakia hadn't arrived, it was decided that if the expedited one didn't come before the Canadians left, she would travel with the Americans and join her daughter later. 

The visa arrived just in time, as the Canadians boarded the plane, with Mrs. Wilkes.

The American team, including 18 athletes and 16 coaches, officials, friends and family members boarded Sabena Flight 548 headed to Brussels, Belgium not long after. 

On Feb. 15, 1961, the plane crashed in a farmer's field in the village of Berg just outside Brussels, killing all 72 passengers and crew on board and one person on the ground.

Half a world away in Los Angeles, California, 20-year-old new bride Carol Heiss Jenkins was asleep at the home of her mother-in-law.

5-time champion 

The five-time world and 1960 Olympic women's figure skating champion had retired from competition, married 1956 Olympic men's champion Hayes Jenkins and was in California starring in the movie Snow White and the Three Stooges for 20th Century Fox.

The phone rang in the middle of the night. It was her brother-in-law, the 1960 Olympic champion David Jenkins, and through his sobs all she could make out was, "'They're gone. They're all gone.' And I asked who's gone? And all he said was 'there was a plane crash - the whole team - they're gone.'" 

She asked if he was sure. It seemed unreal. Heiss Jenkins remembered the times on planes, with figure skating's elite, that they would occasionally and jokingly talk about what would happen to skating if the "plane went down" never believing that it could ever happen.

Well, the unthinkable had happened and the best and brightest of American figure skating had been wiped out.

Heiss Jenkins started to feel the panic rise in her body and told her brother-in-law she would call him right back.

Her longtime coach, Pierre Brunet had been scheduled to travel to Prague with his student, Canadian champion Donald Jackson, and she had to know his fate.

She called the Brunet home, and was beyond relieved to hear Mrs. Brunet say, "Pierre and Donny are here." 

Heiss Jenkins said the next hour was spent on the phone calling family and friends, crying and talking and trying to come to some sort of understanding of the tragedy that had just taken place.

For his part, Donald Jackson, the 1962 Olympic bronze medallist, four-time Canadian champion and North American champion, Donald Jackson was ill in bed.

Trip delayed 

Brunet had advised Jackson that the medical treatment would be of a better quality in the U.S. and that they should delay their trip to Prague by a couple more days to give Jackson time to recover. 

The phone rang at the home of the Coryn family where Jackson was staying, and he overheard Mrs. Coryn say "Oh no!" as she discovered the fate of the American team. Shortly thereafter, the phone rang again with an anxious Mrs. Jackson on the other end thinking her son had been on the ill-fated flight. 

Jackson said that not knowing what else to do, he went to the rink later that day to train because no one knew at that time that the world championships would be cancelled out of respect for the Americans. 

It was the first and only time outside of war time that the worlds were cancelled. They returned to Prague in 1962, where Jackson won his world title.

Skating is synonymous with family for Heiss Jenkins and, 50 years ago, she was breathless thinking about her brother, Bruce, who had finished fourth at the 1961 nationals, safe at home in the U.S. as the first alternate for the world team.

Her sister, Nancy, had a fractured ankle at the time of the 1960 national championships taking her out of Olympic team contention. 

Nancy Heiss had retired but had been pondering her competitive career and had only made the decision at Thanksgiving that she would not continue, favouring collegiate life at Michigan State University instead. 

Other families weren't so lucky.

Nine-time U.S. ladies champion turned coach Maribel Vinson-Owen was on that flight with daughters Laurence Owen, the newly crowned U.S. ladies' champion, and Maribel Y. Owen who was the pairs' champion with partner Dudley Richards.

Painful memory 

Heiss remembers the pain she felt at thinking about Ray Hadley, whose wife Alvah "Linda" Hadley and two children, the pair team of Ila Ray and Ray Jr. were on the flight. 

Don Jackson remembers being the pall bearer for a few of the Americans, including men's competitors Bradley Lord and Greg Kelley. 

There were so many funerals to attend. He said that it took a while for the tears to come but when it was all said and done the shock and the magnitude of the tragedy continued to weigh on him for some time.

A film was commissioned by the United States Figure Skating Association called RISE, outlining the stories of the American team that will premiere on Feb. 17, 2011, in 500 theatres across that country.

The proceeds will go to support the U.S. Figure Skating's Memorial Fund, established Feb. 23, 1961, as a living tribute to the 34 athletes, officials, judges, coaches and family members who lost their lives in the crash.

The Memorial Fund awards approximately $300,000 annually in grants and scholarships to skaters in need, recognizing excellence both on and off the ice. To date the fund has awarded millions of dollars to thousands of deserving skaters including Evan Lysacek, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Kristi Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton and Peggy Fleming, to name a few.

Heiss Jenkins says the Memorial Fund is the "silver lining" on this very dark cloud.

"If the kids on that team ever left any strong legacy it is the Memorial Fund. I have had so many of my skaters over the last 33 years who have been recipients of the fund and it is very important for those skaters who could not have continued otherwise."

From time to time at competitions, she still wears the diamond encrusted blade pendant that was designed for her by judge Harold Hartshorne and wife Louisa who were long time members of the Skating Club of New York and active as adult skaters.

Shortly after her win at the 1960 Olympics, the skating club held a dinner party in Carol Heiss' honour. The Hartshornes gave her the gift that they had made at Tiffany's, saying they wanted to thank her for all of the years of pleasure her skating had given them. 

Following the sport they loved, the Hartshornes were on that Sabena flight.

"It is hard to know what would have happened if the crash hadn't taken the lives of all those people," Heiss-Jenkins says. "What I do know, is that it is important to never forget."

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