CharlieJ
R.I.P bobw
HE MADE a career toying with some of the most aggressive and deadly animals on the planet. But what killed Steve Irwin in the end was quite unexpected, a freakishly unlucky accident involving a creature more prone to timidity than aggression.
Shock and disbelief, across Australia and around the world, greeted news of Irwin's death yesterday morning on a filming expedition off the coast of north Queensland.
Irwin, 44, the khaki-clad Queensland zoo keeper who achieved international celebrity in his television role as the Crocodile Hunter, was being filmed when he was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray barb at Batt Reef, off Port Douglas.
He had been in the area making a documentary, Ocean's Deadliest, and had taken a few hours out to film some innocuous reef footage for a documentary to be aired by his daughter when the accident occurred.
His American-born wife, Terri, learned of his death while on a holiday with their two children, Bindi and Bob, on Tasmania's Cradle Mountain.
As they boarded a private plane home last night, the young family were a plaintive tableaux of grief; toddler Bob was clutching a pink pig for comfort.
A helicopter was rushed in after the accident but nothing more could be done. Ed O'Loughlin, the attending doctor, said Irwin seemed to have suffered a form of cardiac arrest . "He had a penetrating injury to the left front of his chest". Death occurred shortly after 11am.
Professional diver Pete West, who was onboard a nearby boat, said he believed Irwin was alive when we was pulled from the sea. "He was filming a stingray and the stingray turned on him and put the barb into his chest," Mr West told Channel Seven. "We raised the alarm while they took him back to his own boat."
Fellow documentary maker Ben Cropp confirmed last night that footage was taken showing Irwin swimming alongside a bullray in less than two metres of water while a cameraman swam in front. Mr Cropp had not seen the footage, but had spoken to a friend on Irwin's vessel, Croc One. "He probably got too close. "Do I think he was irresponsible? No, he was unlucky. I know because I've done it myself, but in my case the ray missed me."
Stingray deaths are rare just three confirmed in the past 68 years in Australia.
Tributes flowed all afternoon and into the evening, from Prime Minister John Howard to fellow naturalist David Bellamy, for an Australian who talked Strine like no other contemporary personality.
(Source: http://www.theage.com.au)
Shock and disbelief, across Australia and around the world, greeted news of Irwin's death yesterday morning on a filming expedition off the coast of north Queensland.
Irwin, 44, the khaki-clad Queensland zoo keeper who achieved international celebrity in his television role as the Crocodile Hunter, was being filmed when he was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray barb at Batt Reef, off Port Douglas.
He had been in the area making a documentary, Ocean's Deadliest, and had taken a few hours out to film some innocuous reef footage for a documentary to be aired by his daughter when the accident occurred.
His American-born wife, Terri, learned of his death while on a holiday with their two children, Bindi and Bob, on Tasmania's Cradle Mountain.
As they boarded a private plane home last night, the young family were a plaintive tableaux of grief; toddler Bob was clutching a pink pig for comfort.
A helicopter was rushed in after the accident but nothing more could be done. Ed O'Loughlin, the attending doctor, said Irwin seemed to have suffered a form of cardiac arrest . "He had a penetrating injury to the left front of his chest". Death occurred shortly after 11am.
Professional diver Pete West, who was onboard a nearby boat, said he believed Irwin was alive when we was pulled from the sea. "He was filming a stingray and the stingray turned on him and put the barb into his chest," Mr West told Channel Seven. "We raised the alarm while they took him back to his own boat."
Fellow documentary maker Ben Cropp confirmed last night that footage was taken showing Irwin swimming alongside a bullray in less than two metres of water while a cameraman swam in front. Mr Cropp had not seen the footage, but had spoken to a friend on Irwin's vessel, Croc One. "He probably got too close. "Do I think he was irresponsible? No, he was unlucky. I know because I've done it myself, but in my case the ray missed me."
Stingray deaths are rare just three confirmed in the past 68 years in Australia.
Tributes flowed all afternoon and into the evening, from Prime Minister John Howard to fellow naturalist David Bellamy, for an Australian who talked Strine like no other contemporary personality.
(Source: http://www.theage.com.au)
