ORLANDO - A SeaWorld trainer was killed Wednesday when an orca pulled her into the water as she was talking to visitors.
The same orca, or killer whale, has been tied to two earlier deaths in 1991 and 1999, according to the Humane Society of the United States, which has campaigned to keep marine mammals out of theme parks.
Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall said paramedics were called to the Shamu Stadium at the theme park resort where they found a worker who could not be revived.
WKMG-TV reported that a witness, Victoria Biniak, said she saw the incident from a viewing area where the orca is housed.
"The trainer was explaining different things about the whale ... and then the trainer that was down there walked away from the window ... and then Telly (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 theme park was closed shortly after the incident.
WKMG reported Biniak as saying that the killer whale — a 30-year-old, 12,300-pound male orca that also is called Tillikum — does not typically have a trainer in its tank because it is too large.
In 1991, the orca, "along with two female (killer) whales, drowned a young part-time trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand of the Pacific in Canada," the Humane Society stated.
The orcas "weren't trying to kill Byrne, but Tillikum and his orca companions didn't know that humans can't hold their breath as long as whales," Humane Society scientist Naomi Rose said in a report on the group's Web site.
Tillikum was later shipped to SeaWorld of Orlando, the Humane Society noted, and in 1999, "a man who had apparently stayed in the park after closing hours jumped into Tillikum's tank ... He was found dead the next morning, naked and draped across the whale. The man's swim trunks were found in the water, and his body was scraped up, a sign that Tillikum had dragged him around the bottom and sides of the tank."
An autopsy ruled that the man died of hypothermia in the 50-degree water. But officials also said it appeared Tilikum bit the man and tore off his swimming trunks, likely believing he was a toy to play with.
Past attacks at SeaWorld
There have been several previous attacks on whale trainers at SeaWorld parks.
In Nov. 2006, trainer Kenneth Peters, 39, was bitten and held underwater several times by a 7,000-pound killer whale during a show at SeaWorld's San Diego park. He escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot-long orca who attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego's seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters two other times, in 1993 and 1999.
In 2004, another whale at the company's San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.
In December, a whale drowned a trainer at a Spanish zoo.
Killer whales, or orcas, are not actually whales but the largest member of the dolphin family. The name killer whale comes from them being observed as sometimes killing whales for food.
The same orca, or killer whale, has been tied to two earlier deaths in 1991 and 1999, according to the Humane Society of the United States, which has campaigned to keep marine mammals out of theme parks.
Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall said paramedics were called to the Shamu Stadium at the theme park resort where they found a worker who could not be revived.
WKMG-TV reported that a witness, Victoria Biniak, said she saw the incident from a viewing area where the orca is housed.
"The trainer was explaining different things about the whale ... and then the trainer that was down there walked away from the window ... and then Telly (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 theme park was closed shortly after the incident.
WKMG reported Biniak as saying that the killer whale — a 30-year-old, 12,300-pound male orca that also is called Tillikum — does not typically have a trainer in its tank because it is too large.
In 1991, the orca, "along with two female (killer) whales, drowned a young part-time trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand of the Pacific in Canada," the Humane Society stated.
The orcas "weren't trying to kill Byrne, but Tillikum and his orca companions didn't know that humans can't hold their breath as long as whales," Humane Society scientist Naomi Rose said in a report on the group's Web site.
Tillikum was later shipped to SeaWorld of Orlando, the Humane Society noted, and in 1999, "a man who had apparently stayed in the park after closing hours jumped into Tillikum's tank ... He was found dead the next morning, naked and draped across the whale. The man's swim trunks were found in the water, and his body was scraped up, a sign that Tillikum had dragged him around the bottom and sides of the tank."
An autopsy ruled that the man died of hypothermia in the 50-degree water. But officials also said it appeared Tilikum bit the man and tore off his swimming trunks, likely believing he was a toy to play with.
Past attacks at SeaWorld
There have been several previous attacks on whale trainers at SeaWorld parks.
In Nov. 2006, trainer Kenneth Peters, 39, was bitten and held underwater several times by a 7,000-pound killer whale during a show at SeaWorld's San Diego park. He escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot-long orca who attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego's seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters two other times, in 1993 and 1999.
In 2004, another whale at the company's San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.
In December, a whale drowned a trainer at a Spanish zoo.
Killer whales, or orcas, are not actually whales but the largest member of the dolphin family. The name killer whale comes from them being observed as sometimes killing whales for food.
