Sea World trainer killed at Shamu Stadium

A Sea World trainer drowned yesterday at the Orlando Shamu Stadium after being pulled into the water by a killer whale. The accident occurred after Dine with Shamu performance while some two dozen tourists were still present.

The trainer, 40-year-old Dawn Brancheau, was pulled underwater by Sea World’s largest killer whale, the 12,000 pound Tilikum. Brancheau was dead by the time medical help arrived.

Tilikum was the park’s only mature male orca and had been associated with two incidents in the past. He was responsible for the drowning of another trainer in 1991 in British Columbia’s Sealand park. In 1999, police found a dead man in Tilikum’s tank, but circumstances suggested that the man had broken in to the park and died of hypothermia.

The park is preparing to launch a full investigation of the Sea World death.