Man killed, daughter hurt in Florida beach plane crash

[July 28, 2014]  (Reuters) - A man was killed and his daughter injured on Sunday when a small plane crash-landed on a Florida beach, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said.

The pilot of the single-engine Piper Cherokee had placed a distress call to Venice airport on Florida's west coast around 2:45 p.m. local time, officials said.

Soon after, the plane crash-landed on a nearby beach. A beachgoer from Georgia, Ommy Irizarry, 36, was killed and his 9-year-old daughter, Oceana, was critically injured, according to Sarasota County Sheriff's spokeswoman Wendy Rose.

The plane's pilot, Karl Kokomoor, 57, of Englewood, Florida and his passenger were not injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate the cause of the crash.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in Seattle; Editing by Scott Malone, Eric Walsh and Clarence Fernandez)

[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.