“Life’s a beach,” a Georgia man posted on Facebook. And he meant it.
The pictures show a family full of smiles in the sunshine on a Florida beach. Ommy Irizarry followed that post Sunday with one expressing his love to his wife of nine years. It was the couple’s anniversary that brought the family from Fort Stewart to Casperen Beach.
“I am very happy and can’t wait to see what the next 100 have in store for us,” Irizarry posted.
Hours later, Irizarry was dead and his 9-year-old daughter was left critically injured after the two were struck by an airplane attempting an emergency landing.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Irizarry, 36, and his daughter, Oceana, were walking along the beach in Sarasota County shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday when the pilot of a 1972 Piper Cherokee radioed that he was having trouble, couldn’t make it to the nearest airport and was going to try landing on the beach.
A witness told investigators the plane was silent as it hit the beach, striking the father and daughter.
"I didn't hear anything," Zach Arceneaux, 17, told WTSP-TV. "I thought the motor must've went out … figured, maybe it ran out of fuel and just hit them and they weren't ready."
The plane’s pilot, 57-year-old Karl Kokomoor, and his 60-year-old passenger, David Theen, were not injured. But Irizarry died at the scene of the crash, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Oceana was flown to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she was on life support Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said. A member of the sheriff’s office was with family members at the hospital.
In posts on her Facebook page, Irizarry’s wife asked for prayers, and dozens of people posted comments in support of the family. No updates on the girl’s injuries were available late Monday.
Monday afternoon, Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield expressed its condolences on the death of Irizarry, a native of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, who joined the Army in 2002 and was twice deployed to Iraq.
“This is a heart-wrenching situation, especially losing a loved one while on vacation to celebrate a family milestone,” 3rd Infantry Division and Stewart-Hunter commander Maj. Gen. Mike Murray said in an emailed statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Irizarry family.”
Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. But no details about what may have led the plane to hit the family were released.
Irizarry’s death was the second in just over four years involving Georgia residents killed by planes while on beaches.
On March 15, 2010, Robert Jones, of Woodstock, died instantly when he was hit from behind by an experimental plane as he jogged on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Jones, pharmaceutical salesman on a business trip, was survived by his wife and two young children.
About the Author
