Veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, was killed by an orca at SeaWorld’s Shamu Stadium in Orlando. The incident occured today at approximately 2 p.m. as Brancheau was explaining the show to the audience.
Authorities report that Brancheau slipped and fell into a whale holding tank and was then fatally injured. Eye witnesses tell a conflicting story. Park guest Victoria Biniak said that the whale rose up out of the water and seized the trainer in it’s jaws.
Biniak describes the horrific scene, “He was thrashing her around pretty good. It was violent. (The whale) took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off.”
SeaWorld executive Chuck Tompkins has confirmed the eye witness reports – that Brancheau was pulled into the water by Tilikum, a 12,000-pound male killer whale.
Wednesday’s incident is the third time Tilikum has been involved in a human death. “Tilly” was blamed for the drowning death of a trainer while performing at Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia. SeaWorld purchased the whale for breeding purposes in 1992. Tilly was involved in a second death in 1999, when the body of a 27-year-old homeless man, who likely sneaked into the park, was found lying across the whale’s back.
Brancheau was one of SeaWorld Orlando’s leading trainers and one of the few who was specifically trained to work with Tilly. Brancheau told her mom on a trip to Shamu Stadium when she was 9-years-old, “This is what I want to do.”
View photos and listen to an eye witness report of the incident below: