Number 11 Incident at Sint Maarten In July of 2017, a woman died on the Caribbean
island of Sint Maarten, after the jet blast of a low-flying plane knocked her to the ground.
The unnamed 57-year-old, reported as a tourist from New Zealand, had joined other beachgoers
in watching planes at the beach-side Princess Juliana International Airport. Even though
there were signs put in place, warning them about the dangers, tourists regularly climbed
onto rocks to watch the aircrafts as they came in or departed. The woman was holding
on to a fence and observing a Boeing 737 as it was taking off. The powerful jet blast
knocked the beachgoer off her feet and threw her onto the concrete. As she fell, the woman
hit her head and suffered severe trauma. She later succumbed to her injuries in a local
hospital. In the incident’s aftermath, authorities from the Dutch territory re-emphasized the
dangers of approaching the low-flying planes. While the New Zealand woman was the first
recorded fatality, dozens had been injured in recent years by the jet blasts.
to the tragic accident. Number 10 David Frasier
In June of 2014, Virginia man David Frasier had dug two holes at a North Carolina beach
which he then tried to connect with a tunnel. Yet, by the time he started to make his way
through the wall adjacent to each of the 6-foot-deep holes, the sand had dried. The tunnel collapsed
on him and Frasier was buried in the sand for 10 to 15 minutes. The man was unresponsive
when the emergency services reached him and he was pronounced dead at the scene. According
to a spokesperson for the National Park Service, it had been over a decade since someone had
suffocated in collapsed sand in the area. In the incident’s aftermath, beachgoers
were advised to dig holes that were only knee-deep. Sand is highly unpredictable and may rapidly
cave in which is why a general rule is that no group should build a hole deeper than its
smallest member. The authorities added that those built by using a shovel would most likely
end up being too deep to be safe. Number 9 Incident at Noirmoutier Island
In August of 2018, a 21-year-old man was visiting his grandparents in the Bay of Biscay, on
France’s Atlantic coast. While there, he went to a beach on Noirmoutier Island. It
was during the afternoon that, at the high tide line, the unnamed man dug a massive hole.
It’s believed that he was inside it, still digging, and failed to notice the tide coming
in. He was suddenly swamped by a thick mixture of sand and water, unable to crawl out of
the pit he’d dug. A family member reportedly struggled in vain to pull him to safety. Staff
from water rescue centers arrived at the scene, but they too were unable to help the beachgoer.
His lifeless body was recovered three hours later.
Number 8 Ommy Irizarry In July of 2014, a man was killed and his
young daughter was severely injured after a plane struck them while making an emergency
landing on a Florida beach. 36-year-old Ommy Irizarry and his daughter Oceana, aged 9,
were walking along the beach in Sarasota County. The small aircraft lost power in-flight and
was forced to make a crash landing on the hard-packed sand near the water’s edge.
Both the pilot and the plane’s single passenger were unharmed. Irizarry was hit and died on
impact while Oceana was airlifted to a Children’s Hospital, in critical condition. The accident
had been so brutal that another beachgoer, who’d witnessed it, had to be taken to the
hospital with stress-induced cardiac issues. Number 7 Travor Brown
In the summer of 2016, Oklahoma teenager Travor Brown was visiting Florida with a few of his
friends. The group went to a beach at St. Andrews Park where they created a 20-foot-wide
tunnel that was in the shape of a W. The group had reportedly been digging against a steep
and unstable sand ledge. While Brown was inside the tunnel, its walls collapsed and the 17-year-old
was trapped inside. The inundating sand had overwhelmed Brown to the point that he was
unable to move. According to other beachgoers, only the teenager’s feet were sticking out.
Rescue workers were called to the scene and started digging him out with shovels while
using wooden barriers to keep more sand from cascading into the hole. After Brown was freed
from the tunnel, he was taken to the hospital in critical condition. A few days later, the
teenager’s parents made the difficult decision of removing him from life support.
Number 6 Julie Dimperio Holowach While swimming off Bailey Island, in Maine,
a woman became the victim of a rare shark attack. It’s believed that the predatory
fish, later identified as a great white, had confused 63-year-old Julie Dimperio Holowach
for a seal because of her darkly-colored wetsuit. The shark viciously bit into her body, then
swam away. Two kayakers helped the woman get back to shore and an ambulance provided further
assistance. Unfortunately, the woman’s injuries proved too severe as she’d lost a massive
amount of blood. Revival attempts were unsuccessful and Holowach was declared dead at the scene.
According to a marine wildlife expert, Holowach was the first person on record to have been
killed in an unprovoked shark attack in Maine. Number 5 Lee Goggin
In January of 2018, Texas man Lee Goggin was passing through St. Augustine, Florida, when
he and his family stopped at Crescent Beach. The father-of-three and his wife had decided
to make the stop in order to allow their children to “burn off some energy”. While there,
Goggin built a tunnel that collapsed and buried him alive. While trapped under the mass of
sand, the 35-year-old suffered a heart attack. Emergency services had to remove roughly 3
feet of sand before they could retrieve Goggin. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition
and spent two days in a medically-induced coma. Unfortunately, Goggin wouldn’t recover
and died in the hospital. His passing left his family in a particularly difficult financial
situation and a fundraising page was set up in their name. The man reportedly hadn’t
qualified for life insurance because, in 2014, he’d received a kidney transplant from his
brother. Number 4 Carol Aguirre
In September of 2020, Carol Aguirre was lying on a beach in Oceanside, San Diego, when she
suffered a gruesome accident. There was heavy machinery on the beach at the time, as working
crews were finishing up a dredging project at Oceanside Harbor. Tractors were used to
transport pipes to an equipment area so that they could ultimately be hauled away. Aguirre
had been lying on the beach, fully clothed, for over an hour and presumably had fallen
asleep. She didn’t hear a tractor approaching and the operator didn’t see her. The 68-year-old
woman was run over by the 50,000-pound machine and suffered fatal injuries. A local surfer
reported seeing her crumbled up on the beach as he came out of the water. According to
Oceanside police, there was no indication that drugs or alcohol had contributed to the
tragic accident. Number 3 Ashley O’Connor
On July the 31st of 2017, Ashley O’Connor was visiting a beach in Ocean City, Maryland,
when she suffered a fatal accident. The 30-year-old Texas woman was vacationing with her parents
but they’d become separated at around 2 am. A few hours later, O’Connor’s lifeless
body was found buried in a hole on the beach, with only a portion of her arm showing. It
was determined that she’d been asphyxiated after the sand had rapidly caved in. The authorities
started an investigation to determine why a hole of that size had been present on the
beach as well as if O’Connor had fallen inside or climbed in of her own accord. In
the incident’s aftermath, O’Connor’s family sued the town of Ocean City, alleging
that its negligence had led to the woman’s death. According to the lawsuit, the beach
tractor operators, who were responsible for filling the hole, had failed to check if anyone
was inside. In doing so, they’d buried O’Connor which presumably had caused her to suffocate.
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Number 2 Mauled by Great White In early December of 2020, an unnamed surfer
was viciously mauled by a great white shark in the waters of Kangaroo Island, off the
coast of Adelaide, Australia. He was sitting on his board when he felt the shark charging
him from the left side. The 29-year-old man told a media outlet that it felt like being
hit by a truck. The beast bit him in the back, legs, backside and elbow before swimming away.
The injuries would later be described as “catastrophic” by a paramedic. In spite of the damage he’d
sustained, the victim managed to swim back to shore and then walk an additional 300 yards
before finding help. According to the latest reports on his case, the man was heading towards
a full recovery. Number 1 Adam Jay Pye
In August of 2016, Adam Jay Pye drowned in a pit of sand at Francis Beach in Half Moon
Bay, California. The 26-year-old was visiting the beach with family friends and had settled
on a spot near the RV park. Pye and a young woman had reportedly spent hours digging two
massive, diagonal holes. At 10 feet, they were nearly twice as deep as Pye was tall.
The man then tried to create a tunnel that would’ve connected the two holes. Unfortunately,
the sand collapsed on top of him. Other beachgoers grouped together and rushed to save the young
man. They started desperately digging with their bare hands. The rescuers had managed
to dig through about four feet of sand, enough to reach the top of the man’s head. However,
sand kept collapsing back into the hole. They took metal signs from the beach to act as
barriers but it was to no avail. Firefighters arrived at the site and laid a ladder horizontally
over the hole. After digging for over half an hour, they were able to pull Pye out. The
rescuers found that he’d been buried inside standing up straight with his arms to his
sides. He was placed on advanced support for an hour but ultimately succumbed to his injuries,
with the cause of death listed as suffocation. Thanks for watching! If there was a million-dollar
treasure in great white-infested waters, would you still try to dive for it? Let us know
in the comments section below!