Entire Pr Hockey Team Killed In Russia

In Russia, an entire pro hockey team was killed in an airplane crash, which included former NHL hockey players.
From ESPN: A private jet carrying a Russian professional hockey team to its first game of the season crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday, killing 43 people -- including European and former NHL players -- in one of the worst aviation disasters in sports history. Two people survived the accident.
Both Russia and the world of hockey were left stunned by the deaths of so many international stars in one catastrophic event. Of the 45 people on board, 36 were players, coaches and team officials; eight were crew.
Dallas Stars defenseman Karlis Skrastins, Slovakian national team captain and ex-NHL player Pavol Demitra, Olympic gold medal-winning goaltender Stefan Liv of Sweden and the team's coach, former Detroit Red Wings assistant and NHL player Brad McCrimmon were among those confirmed dead.
The chartered Yak-42 jet was carrying the team -- Lokomotiv Yaroslavl -- to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where it was to play Thursday against Dinamo Minskin its opening game of the Kontinental Hockey League season.
The plane apparently struggled to gain altitude and then hit a signal tower before breaking apart along the Volga River near Yaroslavl, 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Moscow. One of the blue-and-white plane's charred engines poked through the surface of the shallow water.
Russian television showed a flaming fragment of the plane in the river as divers worked feverishly to recover bodies.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/6939064/russian-jet-carrying-lokomotiv-khl-crashes-43-dead
In the United States, we have never had an incident where an entire professional team was killed in an accident but we have had a college football team killed in an airplane crash in 1970. For more information: http://media.herald-dispatch.com/mucrash/index.php?p=1_61
I do know that all the professional leagues have contingencies in case of a major disaster where a team is killed or injured in an accident, which I hope and pray never happens.
R.I.P. to all the players, coaches, team members and prayers to the families, friends and fans of the team.