(ATR) The president of the International Ice Hockey Federation says a plane crash killing 42 people, including 35 members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team of the Kontinental Hockey League, makes Wednesday "the darkest day in the history of our sport."
Rene Fasel made the comments in a statement posted on the IIHF website .
Multiple Olympians are among the victims of the crash.
The club was en route to its opening game of the KHL season in Minsk, Belarus when the plane crashed shortly into take-off after flying into radar equipment, IIHF said.
Original media reports said all on board expect one of the pilots died. That was later amended to 34 passengers dying, but shortly after that total was changed again to the current number of 42 victims.
Perhaps the most famous member of the Lokomotiv team was Pavol Demitra, who had a long career in the NHL and was a three-time Olympian for Slovakia. Stefan Liv, a third-string goalie for Sweden’s 2006 gold medal team, is also on the Lokomotiv squad, as are a Belarusian and Latvian Olympian.
Also killed were Czech 2010 world champions Jan Marek and Josef Vasicek, 2011 World U20 champions from Russia Daniil Sobchenko and Yuri Urychev, Canadian coach Brad McCrimmon and German national team defenseman Robert Dietrich.
"This is a terrible tragedy for the global ice hockey community with so many nationalities involved," said Fasel, who upon learning of the disaster immediately called the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and KHL officials to offer condolences. "Our thoughts and prayers are with family and friends of the victims.
"Despite the substantial air travel of professional hockey teams, our sport has been spared from tragic traffic accidents," Fasel added. "But only until now.
A press official for the team was quoted on the IIHF website saying:"At first we didn't want to believe it. But right now there is no hope."
The entire senior roster and four junior players from the club were on the plane, he said.
Lokomotiv is one of the most successful post-Soviet hockey clubs,winning the national championship in 1997 (as Torpedo Yaroslavl), 2002 and 2003. They also won the silver medal in the 2003 IIHF Continental Cup.
Fasel was originally due to travel to Russia on Thursday and will make the trip as planned to "take the opportunity to mourn the dead together with Russian ice hockey and sport authorities, as well as seek more information about the extent of the casualties."
When the plane crashed,defending champion Salavat Yulayev Ufa was hosting Atlant Mytishi in the first match of the season. Play was suspended when the news broke, which was met with "respectful applause" from the audience, according to IIHF reports.
Written by Ed Hula III.
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