Trainer killed at Seaworld, Orlando

[Isafari]

A friend in Florida rang to tell me......many reports available but here is the Orlando Sentinel report...

HERE

"A SeaWorld employee died this afternoon during an incident at SeaWorld's Shamu Stadium, an Orange County Sheriff's Office official confirmed.

SeaWorld, rescue personnel and the Sheriff's Office are not revealing the identity of the victim, although a local TV station is reporting that a female employee was killed after she was grabbed by one of the theme park's whales at the start of a public show.

Park guest Victoria Biniak told Local 6 that the trainer was a veteran of SeaWorld and had just finished explaining to the audience the show they were about to see.

At that point, Biniak said, the whale came up from the water and grabbed the woman.

"He was thrashing her around pretty good. It was violent,'" Biniak told Local 6.

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."

She said sirens went off and everyone was forced to leave the stadium.

Guests were evacuated from the area, and the whale show was cancelled. The park is not shut down.

Orange County Fire Rescue personnel arrived on scene within five minutes of receiving a 911 call for an unknown medical condition just prior to 2 p.m., a spokesman said. The woman was dead when rescue officials arrived.

The Sheriff's Office is on the scene."

[Tinkfan]

My goodness, that is just terrible. Prayers to her poor family

[BUTTERHEAD1]

How very sad for this woman and her family. I can only imagine the horror on the faces of the children who witnessed this incident.RIP

[Britchick]

how tragic, thoughts are with the family

[daveann]

very sad

[Slowhand]

My heart goes out to that poor lady.
It only goes to show however that these are wild animals that they deal with and not domesticated pets.

[Isafari]

Apparently it happened during Dine With Shamu.

[Claire]

A male whale called Tilikum involved apparently. So very, very sad. Thoughts go to the family and friends of the victim.

[Britchick]

just seen the live press conference. 40 year old female fell into a pool and that's when it happened.

[lozzy]

What a horrible thing for anyone to see, My thoughts are with the poor family.
It's very weird as I have just watch the most amazing program on bbc2 about a killer whale who got lost and made friends with the locals.