Orca kills SeaWorld trainer in front of horrified visitors

A video has captured the harrowing moment when a trainer at SeaWorld was seized by the orca Tilikum, and dragged to her death.

The trainer, Dawn Brancheau, had dedicated 16 years to SeaWorld, including time spent with the bull orca Tilikum, who was later featured in the 2013 Netflix documentary “Blackfish.”

Tilikum, a massive orca weighing around 12,500 lbs, was captured at only two years old and had sired several calves at SeaWorld.

By the time he attacked Dawn, Tilikum had already been implicated in the deaths of two other individuals.

The first incident involved Keltie Lee Byrne, a 20-year-old who died in 1991 at Sealand off the Pacific after slipping into a tank with three orcas, including Tilikum.

In 1999, 27-year-old Daniel P. Dukes became the second victim. He remained in the park after hours, and his body was discovered in the whale enclosure, mutilated by Tilikum.

Following Daniel’s death, Tilikum was deemed too dangerous for trainers to swim with.

In 2010, Dawn was working with Tilikum from the poolside when a strand of her hair drifted into the water.

In a police report, Jan Topoleski recounted, “Dawn was lying on her stomach… Tilikum was interacting with her nose to nose. Dawn’s long hair floated into Tilikum’s mouth.”

Topoleski recalled Dawn struggling to free her hair from Tilikum’s mouth, prompting him to activate the alarm. When he turned back, Dawn had disappeared.

CCTV footage shows Dawn entering the water at 13:38. Five agonising minutes later, at 13:43, the orca was seen swimming with her lifeless body in his jaws.

It took 20 minutes to retrieve her body from the pool.

Visitors and staff witnessed Dawn’s final moments as the orca dragged her underwater.

Staff member Lynne Schaber had been awaiting the signal for Tilikum to descend for photos. Instead, she saw him killing Dawn, noting that he never allowed her to surface for air despite her desperate attempts.

One witness described seeing Tilikum impact Dawn squarely in the chest as she tried to escape the water, then circling back with his mouth open.

Even after her body was recovered, witnesses reported Tilikum attempting to retrieve it.

The exact motive behind Tilikum’s attack remains unknown.

Some theories suggest that the concrete tanks, which echo orca sonar, may have caused distress. No fatal attacks on humans by wild orcas have ever been recorded, only by those in captivity.