The European figure skating championships carried on Thursday in Tallin, Estonia, even as the skating world mourned athletes who died in an aircraft collision near Washington, D.C.

Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin put themselves firmly on course for their first European figure skating title Wednesday in the pairs short program. Coming off a win at the Grand Prix Final last month,

John Donnelly, the chief of Washington's fire department, said at a news conference Thursday that 28 bodies have been found and efforts had shifted from "a search-and-rescue operation to a recovery operation.