Dad Says 13-Year-Old Son Suggested the Perfect Tribute to Late Mom, Who Died Alongside His Older Brother in Midair Crash

On a whim, Doug Lane took part in a nostalgic social media trend, posting old photos of his wife and sons making art together about a decade ago. Today, only one of them is still alive.

“It was nice to just escape back to those times and think about what life was like then,” Lane, who turns 52 next week, says.

January 29, 2025 marked the worst day of his life. Lane’s wife, Christine, 49, and his older son, Spencer, 16, boarded American Eagle flight 5342 after a skating event in Wichita, Kansas, heading home.

As the plane descended into Washington, D.C., it collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers. The jet had four crew members and 60 passengers on board, including 28 members of the ice skating community. There were no survivors.

A year later, Lane and his younger son Milo, now 13, are still learning how to live with the loss.

With the one-year anniversary approaching, Lane spent the past week meeting members of the skating community to honor those who died. He also attended a hearing focused on determining the probable cause of the crash, followed by an event recognizing first responders.

On Friday, he plans to attend a special skating performance in Providence, Rhode Island, by the Skating Club of Boston.

Lane has gone to these events without Milo. He says his son’s “coping mechanism has been just to keep his head down and keep moving.”

“I don’t want to push him,” Lane adds, saying he’s proud of the way Milo has handled grief in his own quiet, determined way.

That shows up in subtle choices. Rather than planning something big on his mom’s birthday, Lane kept it simple and asked Milo what he wanted for dinner.

“He’s like, why don’t we go to Rhody Roots, which was Christine’s favorite restaurant,” Lane says. “So in his little subtle ways, he pays tribute to them even if he’s not always open about what he’s feeling. I think it is a step in the right direction.”

Another thing that has become “really important” to Lane is joy — and honoring the people he loved by leaning into the things that made them happiest.

Lane admits he was “never a dog person” before getting married, but he says he’s embraced Christine’s love of canines. He now has two dogs, Harley and Charlee — foster dogs who were supposed to be temporary, but never left.

This month, he plans to begin working on a dog park in their hometown named in Christine’s honor. He also says the Skate Club of Boston is creating a permanent memorial and scholarship in Spencer’s name.

For years, Spencer and his family had carefully mapped out his path to the 2026 Figure Skating championships. Instead, this season Lane has watched other young skaters chase the goals his son never got the chance to reach.

“It’s been a little bit difficult for me to watch the skating competitions this whole year, knowing exactly where Spencer would have been,” Lane says. “This is where he would have gotten his Team USA jacket, this is where he would have been qualifying for sectionals. I knew what his goals were, and that made it difficult.”

Still, Lane says something shifted for him at the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships earlier this month, when he felt surrounded by “so much goodness.”

One moment that stood out: Maxim Naumov — who lost both his parents on the flight — qualified for the Olympics.

Maxim’s parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, were the 1994 world champions in pairs for Russia. They also coached Spencer.

Lane’s voice breaks as he describes how much Spencer admired Maxim — even wearing a hand-me-down jacket with Maxim’s name stitched on the arm.

“For (Maxim) to lose his coaches and parents and then less than a year later qualify for the Olympics is an amazing example of resilience and dedication,” Lane says. “I don’t think people realize what a mentally taxing sport figure skating is. It takes a big leap of faith to say I’m going to jump off the ice, rotate four times in the air and land successfully.”

At the national junior levels, another skater also honored Spencer in a way that hit home for Lane. Patrick Blackwell — who inspired Spencer to start skating — paid tribute to his late friend.

Spencer had already been developing choreography for the upcoming season. Blackwell incorporated part of Spencer’s choreography into his own winning routine, then held up a framed photo of Spencer inside the arena.

“Spencer’s goal for this year was just to qualify for junior nationals,” Lane said, emotional. “So it just felt to me he kind of accomplished his goal in a way, even though he wasn’t there. So between what Max did and what Patrick did, it was hard to be sad that week. I just felt like Spencer would’ve been so proud of both of ’em.”

Toward the end of last summer, Lane says he stepped outside his comfort zone with one purchase that represented hope — not just for the present, but for whatever comes next for him and Milo.

He bought a boat.

“It was a gift to future us,” Lane says. “We used to boat as a family and the marina is right next to the dog park. So come spring, that’s where we’ll go. We’re trying to create a little happiness place for us to enjoy time on the water in the summertime.”