Plane crashes in sports have devastated pro teams and college programs

The crash of an American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter was the latest to strike the sports world in the U.S. and globally.

Among the passengers were several members of the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. They included teenage figure skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, their mothers and two highly regarded Russian-born figure skating coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. All 64 people on board were feared dead.

Air travel accidents in sports are rare, but they have had devastating impacts on national programs, amateur teams and professional clubs.

A look at some of the plane crash tragedies that have struck the sports world over the decades:

On Feb. 6, 1958, a plane carrying the Manchester United team and officials crashed as it attempted to take off on a slush-covered runway in Munich. The team was returning from a European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade, and the plane stopped to refuel in Munich. Among the 23 people were killed were eight Man U players and three team officials. Among those who survived was England great Bobby Charlton.

On Feb 15, 1961, a commercial flight carrying all 18 members of the U.S. Figure Skating team to the world championships in Prague crashed near the Brussels airport, killing everyone one board. Six coaches were also on the plane, along with four team officials and six of the group’s family members.

On Oct. 2, 1970, one of two chartered jets carrying the Wichita State football team to a game in Utah crashed near Silver Plume, Colorado. Of the 40 on board, 31 died, including 14 players along with coaches, boosters, administrators, trainers and three crew members. The NTSB later said the crash could be attributed primarily to pilot error.

On Nov. 14, 1970, a chartered jet carrying the Thundering Herd crashed in fog and rain into a hillside upon approach to an airport near Huntington as the team returned from a game at East Carolina. All 75 on board were killed, including 36 football players and 39 school administrators, coaches, fans, spouses and flight crew.

On Oct. 13, 1972, a chartered Uruguayan Air Force flight carrying the Old Christians Club from Montevideo Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, crashed in the snowy Andes Mountains. The wreckage was not found for two months and only 16 of the 45 people on board survived. Facing snow storms, avalanches and starvation, survivors awaiting rescue were forced to eat the flesh of those who had died, and their ordeal has been chronicled in books and movies.

On Dec. 13, 1977, an Air Indiana chartered plane with the Evansville University men's basketball team crashed 90 seconds after takeoff from the Evansville airport. The 29 people killed included 14 players and first-year head coach Bobby Watson.

On March 14, 1980 the U.S. amateur boxing team was flying from New York to Poland for international events ahead of the 1980 Moscow Olympics when their plane crashed near Warsaw. All 87 on board were killed, including 14 boxers and eight team staff members. Two months later, the U.S. decided to boycott the Olympics due to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

On April 28, 1993, a military aircraft carrying Zambia’s national soccer team to a World Cup qualifying match crashed into the sea minutes after takeoff from Libreville, Zambia. The team was on its way to play Senegal in the second round of qualifying for the 1994 World Cup. Eighteen players and five team officials were killed.

On Jan. 27, 2001, a turboprop plane carrying 10 men associated with the Oklahoma State University basketball team, including players Nate Fleming and Daniel Lawson, crashed shortly after takeoff near Boulder, Colorado, after the Cowboys had played at the University of Colorado. Six team staffers and broadcasters also were killed.

On Sept. 7, 2011, 36 players, coaches and staff of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional ice hockey team were killed when their plane crashed near Yaroslavl in central Russia. Investigators said one of the two pilots accidentally put the wheel brakes on during takeoff. Of the 45 people on board, 44 died. The only player who survived the initial crash later died of burns. A flight engineer was the sole survivor.

Associated Press reporters Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Missouri, Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City, and Eric Olson in Omaha, Nebraska contributed.

FILE - Rescuers work at the crash site of a Russian Yak-42 jet near the city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga River about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011. The Yak-42 jet, carrying members of the Lokomotiv ice hockey team from Yaroslavl, crashed while taking off. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, File)

FILE - Investigators search over some of the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in a pasture outside the eastern Colorado community of Byers, Colol., Sunday, Jan. 28, 2001, that killed 10 people the day before, including two Oklahoma State basketball players and six staffers and broadcasters associated with the men's team. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - Wreckage of a DC-3 which crashed on takeoff from Dress Regional Airport in Evansville, Ind., lies on top of a ridge adjoining railroad tracks, Dec. 14, 1977. Twenty-nine people died in the crash, including members of the University of Evansville basketball team. (AP Photo/File)

FILE- A member of the Andean Group Rescue Corp throws a handful of earth over the common grave of 29 victims of a Uruguayan plane that crashed in the Chilean Andes mountains Oct,. 13, 1972. There were 16 survivors who were rescued 70 after the crash on Dec. 23, 1972. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Nov. 15, 1970, file photo, a fireman looks over the wreckage of a plane in Kenova near Huntington, W.Va., that killed all 75 aboard including members of the Marshall football team. (AP Photo/Henry Griffin, File)

FILE - A charred football helmet, bearing the "W" of Wichita State, hurled from the wreckage of a Martin 4-0-4 airliner near Silver Plume, Colo., as seen on Saturday, Oct. 3, 1970. The crash occurred Oct. 2, about 1:15 pm when the airline crashed into a mountain killing 31 people including members of the Wichita State football team. (AP Photo/Robert D. Scott, File)

FILE - The smoldering wreckage of a Sabena Boeing jet airliner that crashed near Brussels, Belgium, is shown Feb. 15, 1961 . The 17-member U.S. figure skating team and their coach were among the 72 persons aboard the plane who were killed. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - This Oct. 31, 1960 file photo, shows the broken hull and wreckage of a chartered plane that crashed on Oct. 29, 1960, killing 22 people, including 16 Cal Poly football players, a manager and a booster, is shown in Toledo, Ohio. The team was returning home after playing Bowling Green in a college football game when the plane crashed shortly after take-off. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Snow falls on the wreck of a BEA Elizabethan Airliner which crashed on take-off at Munich, Germany, Feb. 6, 1958, killing 21 people, including seven members of the Manchester United football team. The Manchester United football team were returning from Yugoslavia where they had played a European Cup quarter final against Red Star Belgrade the day before. (AP Photo/Heinrich Sanden, File)

HOUSTON (AP) — Former Uvalde, Texas, schools police Officer Adrian Gonzales was among the first officers to arrive at Robb Elementary after a gunman opened fire on students and teachers.

Prosecutors allege that instead of rushing in to confront the shooter, Gonzales failed to take action to protect students. Many families of the 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers who were killed believe that if Gonzales and the nearly 400 officers who responded had confronted the gunman sooner instead of waiting more than an hour, lives might have been saved.

More than 3½ years since the killings, the first criminal trial over the delayed law enforcement response to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history is set to begin.

It’s a rare case in which a police officer could be convicted for allegedly failing to act to stop a crime and protect lives.

Here’s a look at the charges and the legal issues surrounding the trial.

Gonzales was charged with 29 counts of child endangerment for those killed and injured in the May 2022 shooting. The indictment alleges he placed children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his active shooter training. The indictment says he did not advance toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told where the shooter was located.

Each child endangerment count carries a potential sentence of up to two years in prison.

State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology and questioned why officers from multiple agencies waited so long before confronting and killing the gunman, Salvador Ramos.

Gonzales’ attorney, Nico LaHood, said his client is innocent and public anger over the shooting is being misdirected.

“He was focused on getting children out of that building,” LaHood, said. “He knows where his heart was and what he tried to do for those children.”

Jury selection in Gonzales’ trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 5 in Corpus Christi, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Uvalde. The trial was moved after defense attorneys argued Gonzales could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.

Gonzales, 52, and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are the only officers charged. Arredondo was charged with multiple counts of child endangerment and abandonment. His trial has not been scheduled, and he is also seeking a change of venue.

Prosecutors have not explained why only Gonzales and Arredondo were charged. Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.

It’s “extremely unusual” for an officer to stand trial for not taking an action, said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a University of Houston Law Center professor.

“At the end of the day, you’re talking about convicting someone for failing to act and that’s always a challenge,” Thompson said, “because you have to show that they failed to take reasonable steps.”

Phil Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University who maintains a nationwide database of roughly 25,000 cases of police officers arrested since 2005, said a preliminary search found only two similar prosecutions.

One involved a Florida sheriff’s deputy, Scot Peterson, who was charged after the 2018 Parkland school massacre for allegedly failing to confront the shooter — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting. He was acquitted by a jury in 2023.

The other was the 2022 conviction of former Baltimore police officer Christopher Nguyen for failing to protect an assault victim. The Maryland Supreme Court overturned that conviction in July, ruling prosecutors had not shown Nguyen had a legal duty to protect the victim.

The justices in Maryland cited a prior U.S. Supreme Court decision on the public duty doctrine, which holds that government officials like police generally owe a duty to the public at large rather than to specific individuals unless a special relationship exists.

Michael Wynne, a Houston criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor not involved in the case, said securing a conviction will be difficult.

“This is clearly gross negligence. I think it’s going to be difficult to prove some type of criminal malintent,” Wynne said.

But Thompson, the law professor, said prosecutors may nonetheless be well positioned.

“You’re talking about little children who are being slaughtered and a very long delay by a lot of officers,” she said. “I just feel like this is a different situation because of the tremendous harm that was done to so many children.”

Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed.

Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70

FILE - Flowers are placed around a welcome sign outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022, to honor the victims killed in a shooting at the school. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Velma Lisa Duran, sister of Robb Elementary teacher Irma Garcia, cries as she reflects on the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting during an interview on Dec. 19, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Kin Man Hui)

Velma Lisa Duran, sister of Robb Elementary teacher Irma Garcia, poses with photos of her sister and brother-in-law, Joe Garcia, as she reflects on the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting on Dec. 19, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Kin Man Hui)

FILE - This booking image provided by the Uvalde County, Texas, Sheriff's Office shows Adrian Gonzales, a former police officer for schools in Uvalde, Texas. (Uvalde County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

FILE - Crosses with the names of shooting victims are placed outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)