A killer whale pulled SeaWorld trainer into the water Wednesday by her ponytail at SeaWorld at the Orlando, Florida location and was killed. It occurred just before a 2 pm performance.
Initial reports were that the trainer slipped and fell into the tank, but now SeaWorld and eye witnesses are saying that the trainer leaned over the whale and her ponytail brushed the whale. The whale pulled on her ponytail and then grabbed her by the waist. The whale flung her around in the water violently until she apparently drowned.
The trainer, 40 was pronounced dead immediately afterwards. SeaWorld announced Thursday morning that the whale would not be put down. For more on that story, click here.
WKMG’s Victoria Biniak said that she watched the incident happen from a viewing area nearby.
"The trainer was explaining different things about the whale, and then the trainer that was down there walked away from the window. Then [the whale] took off really fast in the tank, and he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing [her] around," Biniak said.
The bull orca whale involved is named Tilikum or Telly and has been involved in two other deaths in the last 20 years, one of which was a trainer. It is about 30 years old and weighs 12,300-pound. See the video below for the full story.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that in November of 2006, a trainer was bitten and held underwater by a 7,000-pound whale during a SeaWorld performance in San Diego. He survived with only a broken foot.
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