Dad Found One Last Video of Wife and Daughter Taking Off Before D.C. Plane Crash: ‘Always in Our Hearts’

Ilia Kulik, Olivia’s Russian coach who won a gold Olympic medal in 1997, told Olivia’s parents that she would “definitely be able to compete” on a national level within the next couple of years.

“We lost a very talented ice skater, maybe a future champion,” Andrey tells PEOPLE. He adds, “She was a really good ice skater with a very bright potential. And she really wanted to be, and that’s all she wanted to do.”

Olivia was also an animal lover. “She would pick them up and try to carry them babies,” he recalls, adding that his daughter “loved everything that moved — all of it.”

Olesya and Olivia went to the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum before boarding a plane in the same city to head home. That’s where Olesya and Andrey had their last conversation.

“My wife [was] talking with me about them being in [the] museum and Olivia being excited,” Andrey tells PEOPLE. He says there is a picture of Olivia holding a piece of paper that she used a typewriter to print on.

Andrey has one last video of his wife and daughter taking off from the airport, which he recovered by backing up his wife’s phone to the cloud.

Andrey was already inside the airport garage when the crash occurred. The airport is 15 minutes from where Andrey and his family live in Alexandria, Va.

“We drive by that airport daily,” he says, noting that sometimes the family would go to Gravelly Point Park and just watch the planes taking off and landing.

At 8:47 p.m. local time, Andrey received one last message from his wife as their plane attempted to land at Reagan saying, “We are landing.”

The plane crashed one minute later at 8:48 p.m., but Andrey did not witness the incident. He tried calling his wife and daughter multiple times after their plane was supposed to land, but they did not respond.

He then called his 14-year-old daughter A.V. and asked if her mother and sister had called. She said no, but relayed that she got a text message from her mother asking if she was going to pick them up.

A short time later, Andrey saw emergency vehicles pass by “with sirens” on. Soon, he saw headlines stating a small plane crash had occurred at the airport.

So Andrey went inside the airport, hoping to gather more information, but no one was at the desk to help him. He says the airport was in “disarray,” and that no one had answers.

Turning back to the news, Andrey quickly realized that the plane involved in the crash was the one his family was on. Initially, he was in denial and reminded himself that his wife and daughter are strong swimmers.

“Yes, it’s cold. Yes, it’s dark. It’s shallow water,” he says. He told himself they probably got out and swam. “It’s only 8 feet of water – and now it’s cold, but it’s close to the airport. They could have easily swam.”

His 14-year-old reassured him with similar logic. “She was saying, ‘Dad, don’t worry. You know how well mom and Olivia swim. They’re probably just sitting on the bank on the river.’”

Eventually, Andrey received a call from the police that confirmed his fears: his wife and daughter had died. “At that point … you are in shock,” Andrey tells PEOPLE, adding, “Your wife is gone, and you don’t even want to think about what happened to your daughter.”

His eldest daughter later told him, “It’s done. And there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Andrey doesn’t follow the investigation and doesn’t watch the news. “I’m tired of hearing about it,” he says.

Andrey says he “was probably the happiest man on Earth” until the tragic crash killed his wife and daughter. “I had everything that I needed, everything that I wanted. And God took two of the dearest things I had away from me,” he tells PEOPLE. “Half of me is gone, and it’s no longer there.”

He then wondered, “Why me, God? Are you punishing me? And then I realized it’s 67 – God is punishing more than me.”

Andrey wishes he “could have done more” for Olesya and Olivia. “All we can do is make sure that they’re remembered,” he says. “They’re always in our hearts.”

A GoFundMe established in memory of Olivia and Olesya has raised over $60,000 of its $100,000 goal as of the time of publication.