"Just the horror that the parents are going through — that blows me away," said Joanne Kispert, whose father died in the 2001 crash of AA Flight 587 in New York. "It makes me so sad for the families."

The pilot and first officer on the American Airlines plane that crashed into a military helicopter Wednesday night—killing all 64 people on board—have been identified by a colleague and family member as victims alongside American and Russian figure skaters,