“I still remember when we dropped her off. She said, ‘See you later, mom and dad!’” Pil Jye Ko told Local 10 News his daughter, Erin Ko Han, said to him and his wife as they dropped her off for her first day at the Miami Yacht Club’s sailing camp.
Ko said when he heard about the crash, he hoped it was a “dream.” However, when he realized it wasn’t, he prayed for a “miracle.”
“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,” Ko said.
The grieving dad and his wife rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital to be by their teen’s bedside, where they were in disbelief over her injuries.
“I can still see it in my mind. She had many wounds to her head, her arms, her legs, everywhere,” he recalled.
The Nautilus Middle School star student was fluent in English, Spanish, and Korean, and was learning Japanese. She excelled on the volleyball court and loved swimming, Ko said.
“She was the perfect daughter,” Ko said.
Chilean natives, the Ko family relocated to Florida in 2024 for work and to provide a better life for Erin.
However, the heartbroken family is now left seeking “justice” for Erin’s death.
“We are very much in pain in our hearts because she was all we had,” Ko told the outlet. “I need to honor my daughter because I can’t say goodbye as if nothing (happened). I need to know what happened.”
Mila Yankelevich, 7, the granddaughter of an award-winning Argentinian TV producer, Cris Morena, was also killed when the barge plowed into their sailboat while at summer camp.
Two other campers, ages 8 and 11, were critically injured in the wreck. The sailboat’s 19-year-old instructor and a 12-year-old girl were unhurt.
The US Coast Guard launched an investigation into the deadly crash.
The captain of the barge — who has not been identified — was given a sobriety test at the scene and has not been arrested.
