Plane Kills Man on Florida Beach

His daughter was critically hurt by light aircraft
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 28, 2014 2:39 AM CDT
Plane Kills Man on Florida Beach
This photo provided by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office shows emergency personnel at the scene of a small plane crash in Caspersen Beach in Venice, Florida.   (AP Photo/Sarasota County Sheriff's Office)

A man walking along a beach in Florida with his young daughter yesterday afternoon was killed by a crash-landing light plane. Police say 36-year-old Ommy Irizarry from Georgia was killed and his 9-year-old daughter, Oceana, was critically injured when the 1972 Piper Cherokee touched down at the edge of the water on Venice's Caspersen Beach, the Tampa Tribune reports. It's not clear whether Irizarry was hit by the plane or by debris, police say. A woman who witnessed the crash was hospitalized with chest pains, ABC reports.

The light plane's 57-year-old pilot and his passenger were not injured in the crash, says a police spokeswoman. Before the crash, the Venice airport was "contacted by a pilot whose small plane was in distress," she says. "He knew he couldn’t make it back to the airport and was going to try to land on the beach. And he did land at the edge of the water on the beach." A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman tells the AP that the plane apparently lost power and the FAA is investigating the crash. (More plane crash stories.)

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