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Steve Irwin’s underwater cameraman has recalled the horrifying moment the stingray that caused the Australian zookeeper’s tragic death attacked him.
Justin Lyons spoke to Studio 10 back in 2014 and discussed the incident that took place on September 4, 2006.
At the time, he said: “Stingrays are normally very calm. If they don’t want you to be around them they’ll swim away, they’re very fast swimmers.”
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Lyons went on to recall how he and Irwin had worked with this sea animal plenty of times before, and this particular one was extraordinary due to how big it was.
He said they had been shooting for a few minutes and wanted to get one last shot of Irwin swimming behind the animal, but all of sudden it became hostile.
Lyons said: “It propped up on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail. It probably thought that Steve’s shadow was a tiger shark, which feeds on them regularly.
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“I panned the camera away as it swam. I didn’t know it even caused [Irwin] any damage.
“It wasn’t until I panned the camera back that Steve was stood in a huge pool of blood.”
Lyons added that his first instinct was to get Irwin out of the water, in case it attracted sharks.
When elaborating on the damage the stingray caused, the cameraman explained that it had punctured Irwin’s lung and he was pouring blood and fluid, along with having venom in his system from the animal’s barb.
Irwin’s longtime friend also recalled his last moments, by adding: “He was having trouble breathing.
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“But even if we’d been able to get him into an emergency ward at that moment we probably wouldn’t been able to save him because the damage to his heart was massive.
“So as we’re motoring back, I’m screaming at one of the other crew in the boat to put their hand over the wound.
“And we’re saying to him things like, ‘Think of your kids Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on’. He just sort of calmly looked up at me and said, ‘I’m dying’. And that was the last thing he said.”
The beloved animal enthusiast is missed by millions of his fans, but his love for wildlife is being continued by his family, who still runs his zoo and constantly share their adventures on social media.
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