A father was killed and his nine-year-old daughter seriously injured when they were struck as a light plane crash-landed as they walked along a US beach.
Ommy Irizarry, 36, and his daughter Oceana had been walking on Gulf Coast beach in Florida when the pilot of the 1972 Piper Cherokee, which had lost power, tried to make an emergency landing.
Pilot Karl Kokomoor, 57, and his passenger David Theen, 60, were uninjured in the incident, which happened mid-afternoon on Sunday.
A local airport had received a distress call that the plane couldn't make it back to Venice Airport.
"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," said Wendy Rose, a spokeswoman for Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
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Oceana Irizarry was airlifted to a hospital where she is listed as critical.
Irizarry was pronounced dead.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
