Video of Shamu and Trainer

Shamu Kills Trainer

From the Orlando Sentinel:

A SeaWorld Orlando animal trainer was killed this afternoon during an accident at SeaWorld's Shamu Stadium, park and law enforcement officials said.

Dawn Brancheau, a 40-year-old with extensive training experience, drowned following a popular Dine with Shamu show as at least two dozen tourists looked on from above a whale tank and from an underwater viewing area.

Authorities said Brancheau was in a whale holding area when she apparently slipped or fell into the tank and was fatally injured by one of the park's killer whales.

But witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that one of the park's whales grabbed the trainer by the upper arm, tossing her around in its mouth as it swam rapidly around and around in the tank.

Brazilian tourist Joao Lucio DeCosta Sobrinho, 28, and girlfriend Talita Oliveira, 20, were at an underwater viewing area when they suddenly saw a whale with someone in its mouth.

The couple said they watched the whale show at the park two days earlier and came back to take pictures. But this afternoon the whales appeared agitated before the incident occurred.

"It was terrible. It's very difficult to see the image," Sobrinho said.

Brancheau was bleeding from the face or mouth, they said, and the whale turned her over and over as it swam.

Other witnesses who were in the park for the Dine with Shamu told the Sentinel that a female trainer was petting a whale when it grabbed her and plunged back into the water. The whale reappeared on the other side of the tank with the woman.

Within minutes, an alarm in the viewing area sounded and security personnel arrived to escort tourists out.