A freak accident took place at Florida Keys on Thursday as an eagle ray jumped from the water onto a boat and killed a woman who was sunbathing according to a Florida wildlife investigator. The sting ray struck the woman with its barb killing her. The animal also died and is now aboard the small vessel.

Jorge Pino, an agent with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission labeled the occurrence as “a bizarre accident,” Reuters reports.

The woman was reportedly aboard the small boat in the Atlantic Ocean with her family. The exact place of the accident was off the coast of Marathon Key, near the Florida Keys, not far from Miami.

Pino confirmed that the eagle ray leaped from the water onto the vessel and struck the woman with its barb. She then fell and hit her head on some portion of the vessel. It’s not sure yet which impact caused the 55-year-old Michigan woman’s death.

The results of the autopsy, which will be conducted by the medical examiner, must come in so that the cause of the woman’s death could be determined.

"We don't know exactly which one of those things caused her death," said Pino, who added that he witnessed eagle rays jump from water into the air, but it is unusual for them to collide with objects.

The killer eagle ray weighed approximately 75 pounds according to Becky Herrin, a spokeswoman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

A similar accident led to the death of Steve Irwin, host of the very popular Animal Planet "Crocodile Hunter" television show. The Australian wildlife expert died after his chest was pierced by the barb of an eagle ray. It was another species of ray and it pierced Irwin’s heart while he was filming underwater on Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 2006.