The father of a young girl who lost her life during a sailing camp in Miami shared the poignant last exchange he had with his daughter. The 13-year-old, Erin Ko Han, was on a sailboat with four other children and a camp counselor aged 19 when they collided with a barge near Miami Beach’s Hibiscus Island, in Biscayne Bay, on July 28.
Erin was one of the two children who did not survive the accident. Seven-year-old Mila Yankelevich also died, while two other children, aged eight and ten, sustained injuries and were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition.
On that day, Erin had been left at Miami Yacht Club’s sailing camp, a moment her father, Pil Jye Ko, vividly remembers.
“I still remember when we dropped her off,” Ko shared with Miami’s Local 10 news. “She said, ‘See you later, mom and dad.’”
Tragically, they would not see her again, as the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office concluded on Thursday that Erin and Mila’s deaths were due to ‘accidental drowning’.
Ko continued to express his disbelief, saying, “We hoped that this was all just a dream, or that a miracle would have happened. That the hospital would call and say, ‘Your daughter is alive. She’s alright.’ But no, that didn’t happen. No, no, no. It’s not what happened.”
He faced the unthinkable task of identifying his daughter’s body.
“I can still see it in my mind. She had many wounds to her head, her arms, her legs, everywhere. I couldn’t believe it. No, no, no,” he added.
The family had only relocated from Chile to the US last year in pursuit of a better future for Erin.
Erin was fluent in English, Korean, and Spanish, and was also learning Japanese before the tragic incident took her away from her family and peers at Nautilus Middle School.
“She was the perfect daughter. She was perfect,” Ko stated in his interview.
“We are very much in pain in our hearts because she was all we had.
“I need to find justice. I need to honor my daughter because I can’t say goodbye as if nothing [happened]. I need to know what happened.”
He further noted: “There are two girls, girls, who are now in heaven. And two others are in critical condition. This can’t happen. They are children. Children who had much life ahead of them.”
The US Coast Guard is investigating the accident and reported that all the children on the boat were wearing life jackets during the crash.