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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1...seaworld_death
Brancheau, 40, was rubbing Tilikum from a poolside platform when the 12,000-pound (5,500-kilogram) creature reached up, grabbed her ponytail in its mouth and dragged her underwater. Trainers rushed to help but could not save her.

Horrified visitors who had stuck around after a noontime show watched the animal charge through the pool with the trainer in its jaws.

The whale apparently grabbed Brancheau by her long ponytail, according to Tompkins. He told ABC television that her ponytail swung out in front of the whale.

"That's when the trainer next to him (Tilikum) said that he grabbed the hair, pulled her under water. And of course, held her under water," Tompkins said.

Kelly Vickery, 24, was at the noon show Wednesday and said the whales seemed to be acting odd, swimming around the tank rapidly. Trainers said the whales "were having an off day, that they were being ornery," she said.

She returned Thursday with her sons, ages 1 and 5, so they could see the areas of the park they had missed a day earlier, though she acknowledged being there felt "weird" a day after the tragedy.

"But it's an animal, and it's an accident," she said.

Audience member Eldon Skaggs, who saw the attack, said Brancheau's interaction with the whale appeared leisurely and informal at first. But then, the whale "pulled her under and started swimming around with her," Skaggs told The Associated Press.

Skaggs said he heard that during an earlier show the whale was not responding to directions.

But Tompkins said the whale had performed well in the show and that Dawn was rubbing him down as a reward for doing a good job.

"There wasn't anything to indicate to us that there was a problem," Tompkins told the CBS.

Another audience member, Victoria Biniak, told WKMG-TV the whale "took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off."

Because of his size and the previous deaths, trainers were not supposed to get into the water with Tilikum, and only about a dozen of the park's 29 trainers worked with him. Brancheau had more experience with the 30-year-old whale than most.
Billy Hurley, chief animal officer at the Georgia Aquarium - the world's largest - said there are inherent dangers to working with orcas, just as there are with driving race cars or piloting jets.

"In the case of a killer whale, if they want your attention or if they're frustrated by something or if they're confused by something, there's only a few ways of handling that," he said. "If you're right near pool's edge and they decide they want a closer interaction during this, certainly they can grab you."

And, he added: "At 12,000 pounds there's not a lot of resisting you're going to do."

Tragedy struck SeaWorld Orlando when killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau was attacked by a whale named Tilikum and died shortly thereafter.

And according to Brancheau’s mother Marion Loverde, Dawn had her heart set on working with the massive mammals ever since encountering the famous Shamu years ago.

CBS has a photo gallery of Dawn and the whales in good times. While some of these shots are show stunts, there are several the show how much she loved these creatures, and how some of them trusted her.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-504083_162-10002596.html