On Jan. 29, at close to 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Patel died along with 66 others when an ascending Black Hawk helicopter, with a crew of three, and an American Airlines jet that had come from Wichita and was descending into Reagan Washington National Airport, collided midair above the Potomac River. There were no survivors.

Rescue and salvage crews are continuing to recover bodies and debris in the Potomac River. The mid-air collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Wichita was the deadliest air incident in two decades.

Each person killed in the Wichita plane crash has a story. We are sharing what loved ones say about the lives lost on flight 5342.

The city had tried for years to host the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and to get a direct flight to the northeast.

U.S. figure skater Spencer Lane, 16, shared a photo from inside American Eagle Flight 5342 before it took off from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., where it crashed into a helicopter mid-air.