I don't know the full circumstances surrounding how this incident ended with the tragic collision with the Father and his Daughter, I fly in and out of Venice on a regular basis and I've always considered the beach a good place to put down in the case of an engine out situation, the main beach area around central Venice is a busy place but to the south of the City the beaches are usually very quiet.
Maybe the pilot saw these unfortunate souls on the beach and considered his aircraft would put down well clear of them, maybe as he was on short final with the sun in his eyes and had no sight of them ?.
The Gulf around the area has a great deal of small boat traffic maybe he thought it unsafe to go for a water landing for fear of a collision ?
With his engine out situation he would have have been on maximum workload and minimum time to try and get a good outcome to the situation, sadly that didn't happen....
All pure conjecture at the moment of course, But one things for sure I'll be a lot more alert in future when arriving or departing Venice or any other coastal airport.
As many have said here and elsewhere,as pilots if we are going to be having an accident we have to do everything we can to make sure it's our accident and no one else's !
Edit: Sadly it has just been reported that the little girl has died from her injuries.
Last edited by alland2012; 29th Jul 2014 at 15:34.
Reason: Update