Girl, 9, Dies When Struck by Plane on FL Beach
A girl, 9, has died from when she was struck by a plane on a Florida beach Sunday. Oceana Irizzary and her father Ommy were walking on Caspersen Beach in Venice when a small plane lost power and emergency landed practically on top of them, killing the father and hospitalizing the girl.
The 9-year-old girl was airlifted to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg following the accident, but she died from her wounds, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said in a press release Tuesday. Her father Ommy, an Army Sgt. 1st Class, had just celebrated his nine-year anniversary with his wife, and expressed his love via Facebook.
"Thank you for being with me through thick and thin. I love you with all my heart, mi Roma. I am very happy and can't wait to see what the next 100 have in store for us," Irizarry posted on Sunday.
Karl Kokomoor, the pilot who crashed the plane, had been flying a 1972 Piper Cherokee with his passenger David Theen when something went wrong. Kokomoor, 57, contacted Venice Municipal Airport and told them he couldn't make it back— instead, he was going to make an emergency landing on Caspersen beach.
The pilot landed "at the edge of the water; at the edge of the sand," police spokeswoman Wendy Rose said, and he and his passenger were uninjured. Unfortunately, Oceana and her father were there and were struck by the plane.
"It's the last thing you'd expect," Zack Arceneaux, who saw the plane going doing, told CNN. "I saw that a plane had gone down over there. First thing I saw was the wheel knocked off and the propeller bent."
The family released a statement after Oceana's death.
"There are no words to describe the suffering we are experiencing. Their loss is devastating to our family and to everyone who knew them," the statement read. "Oceana was a beautiful, intelligent and kind-hearted little girl" who "loved to learn."
Ommy "was a beloved husband, father, son, brother, friend and soldier. He lit up the room whenever he entered and was devoted to his family," they added.
