Girl Dies After Plane Hits Her on the Beach

29 Jul, 2014

The 9-year-old girl who was struck by a plane that crash-landed on a Florida beach and killed her father also has died from her injuries, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said on Tuesday.

Oceana Irizarry and her family were walking on Caspersen Beach in Venice on Sunday when the pilot of a single-engine Piper plane alerted the local municipal airport that he was going to have to make an emergency landing on the beach.

Oceana’s father, Army Sergeant 1st Class Ommy Irizarry, 36, who was stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia, died on Sunday after being hit by the plane as it came down.

Oceana was airlifted to a children’s hospital in St. Petersburg in critical condition.

Ommy Irizarry and his wife, Rebecca, were celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary on the day he died. Rebecca, two other Irizarry children, Ommy’s mother and at least one family friend were on the beach but were not injured, the sheriff’s office said.

After striking the father and daughter, the plane went for another 50 yards before crashing into the sand, according to the sheriff’s office. The pilot and passenger were uninjured.

The sheriff’s office turned the investigation over to the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board, sheriff’s spokeswoman Wendy Rose said.

Rose said Tuesday the investigation into the crash continuing.

Reuters

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