😭 HEARTBREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Parents and Their Two Young Daughters Die Together Returning Home After a “Good Week” on a Dream Family Trip

Peter Livingston, his wife Donna and their daughters Everly, 14, and Alydia, 11, all died when American Airlines Flight 5342 went down on Jan. 29, 2025

The Livingston family: dad Peter, mom Donna and daughters Alydia and Everly.Credit : Courtesy the Livingston family

NEED TO KNOW

A mid-air collision on on Jan. 29, 2025, didn’t just claim 67 lives, but entire worlds
For the Livingston family, the tragedy meant the devastating loss of Peter Livingston, his wife Donna and their daughters Everly, 14, and Alydia, 11
“It’s an entire branch of our family tree gone,” one cousin tells PEOPLE

When American Airlines Flight 5342 went down over the Potomac River on Jan. 29, 2025, the crash didn’t just claim 67 lives, but entire worlds. For the Livingston family, the tragedy meant the devastating loss of Peter Livingston, his wife Donna and their daughters, Everly, 14, and Alydia, 11. To those who loved them, the devoted parents and gifted young athletes left indelible marks on every space they entered.

“They were full of life; when the four of them walked in, they lit up a room,” Amy Hunter, Peter’s cousin, tells PEOPLE. “It’s an entire branch of our family tree gone.”

Peter was a devoted father, husband and deeply involved member of his Northern Virginia community. He and Donna were raising their daughters in Ashburn, where family life centered around Everly and Alydia’s burgeoning figure skating careers.

“For Peter, his life revolved around his girls,” says Hunter, who lives in Napa, California. “He lived for the girls.”

Rachel Feres, another cousin, grew up just across the woods from Peter. Years later, watching him embrace life in the elite figure skating world still makes her smile.

“Just knowing Peter, growing up, it was really funny to me that he became such a girl dad in this world of figure skating with the sparkly outfits and all of the pageantry of it,” she says.

Donna, friends and family say, was equally magnetic.

“Donna was just sparkly, bright, driven, with the biggest, loudest laugh,” Feres recalls. “She was just one of those people who makes you just feel warm and good to be around.”

Hunter echoes that sentiment, pointing to Donna’s professional success and generosity of spirit.

“Donna was an executive at Comcast. She was very smart,” she says. “She was known as a connector — if she saw one person who could help another, she would connect them, even when there was no benefit to her.”

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Peter, who worked as a real estate agent, brought the same energy and warmth to his professional life. Known for his strong work ethic and easy humor, he balanced the demands of the job with a genuine interest in people, forging long-standing relationships throughout the community.

At home, however, Peter was best known for another passion.

“He was kind of famous for making the Livingston Ice Plex,” Hunter says. “It was trial and error, but he made an ice skating rink in the back of his little postage stamp yard every year.”

Alydia, 11, and Everly, 14.Courtesy the Livingston family

Everly and Alydia were both talented members of the Washington Figure Skating Club. On the day of the crash, the family was returning home from the U.S. Figure Skating National Development Camp in Wichita, Kansas. The sisters often shared their skating routines on social media, including on Instagram, where they went by the handle @ice_skating_sisters.

“The girls had totally different personalities,” Hunter says. “Everly was much more quiet, more reserved, with a funny little sense of humor. Alydia — Lydie — was vivacious and outgoing, always cracking jokes.”

One thing they both had in common? Their talent was unmistakable.

“It was entirely possible one or both of them would have ended up in the Olympic Games at some point — they were that good,” Hunter says.

When both girls qualified for the camp, the entire family traveled together.

“Because they both qualified, they were all together,” Hunter explains. “It was a good week for them and they were happy. We take that as a blessing, that they were all together.”

For Feres, the loss remains deeply personal.

“Peter, Donna, Everly and Alydia were beautiful people,” says the Denver resident. “The world is a poorer place without them.”

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In the aftermath of the crash, families affected by the tragedy united, forming a bond rooted in shared grief.

Hunter and Feres stepped up as group leaders for a biweekly online support group that now includes 118 members. Over the past year, the families have partnered with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to improve aviation safety procedures, determined to ensure that what has been deemed an entirely preventable tragedy never happens again.

“We are an unlucky club,” Hunter says. “We don’t ever want any other families to have to go through this again. We want meaningful change — systematic change — regarding the failures that happened in our airspace.”

The group has gained the attention of the NTSB, the FAA and Congress. In December 2025, due in part to their advocacy, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform (ROTOR) Act (S.2503), aimed at improving aviation safety and closing regulatory gaps highlighted by the Flight 5342 crash.

“My cousin and his wife and his two daughters deserved better — everybody on board 5342 and everybody on board the Black Hawk and the people in the tower all deserved better than what happened that night,” Feres says. “That’s been a driving mission for me and for the other families ever since.”

Peter and Donna Livingston.Courtesy the Livingston family

Both cousins spoke at a memorial service honoring the 67 crash victims held in D.C. on Wednesday, January 28. The gathering offered a moment to remember loved ones and thank the hundreds of emergency responders who rushed to the crash site one year earlier.

“We cannot change what happened, but love does not end with remembrance,” Feres said at the memorial. “It moves us to protect others — that is how love carries forward, not only in memory but in action.”

For Feres, the closeness shared among the families of Flight 5342 has brought a sense of understanding that only they can offer. Still, she says, the unimaginable loss is something that never truly fades.

“We have this amazing group of families, because they had amazing people on the plane, just so many talented people,” she says. “The world lost a lot of lights on January 29 — beautiful, talented, driven, giving, loving people. The world lost sons and daughters and cousins and friends, and that has a ripple effect; and so we should remember that.”