Inspection Detail

Inspection: 307035774 - Sea World

Inspection Information - Office: San Diego District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 4:45 p.m. on November 29, 2006, Employee #1, an animal trainer working at a marine animal park in San Diego, California, was performing with the killer whales. At the end of the second show of the day, Employee #1 was preparing to perform the climactic "rocket hop" or "Houdini", where he dove under the water from the stage, and the killer whale was supposed to lift him up out of the water into the air as he launched from her nose and dove back down into the water. Until that time, there was no indication of any unusual behavior of the killer whale, but while Employee #1 was under the water, the whale broke away from the behavior and grabbed onto Employee #1's foot with her mouth. The killer whale held Employee #1 underwater for some time. She slowly brought Employee #1 back to the surface but she did not respond to the other trainer's commands to return to the stage. She continued to bite onto Employee #1's leg and foot and dragged him underwater a second time, to the bottom of the pool. The other trainers deployed a safety net that was supposed to distract the whale. She came up again with Employee #1's foot still in her mouth. Employee #1 attempted to calm the whale by rubbing her with his hands as they were slowly swimming around at the surface of the pool. The whale eventually released Employee #1, and he was able to swim away to a safe spot. Employee #1 sustained the puncture wounds to both feet and fractured metatarsal in his left foot. He was hospitalized.

Keywords: AMUSE PARK/CARNIVAL, FRACTURE, POOL, ANIMAL BITE, FOOT, LEG, PUNCTURE, SWIM, WATER