ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration is investigating the death of a SeaWorld Orlando trainer who was likely drowned by a killer whale on Wednesday, Local 6 News reported.

How the park handled previous whale attacks will also be a part of the investigation, OSHA officials said. SeaWorld will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. Friday to address the issue. The news conference will be streamed live on ClickOrlando.com.

An autopsy showed that veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, likely died of multiple traumatic injuries and drowning, the Orange County Medical Examiner said on Thursday.

Brancheau was interacting with SeaWorld's largest whale, Tilikum, in knee-deep water at the Orlando park on Wednesday when she was grabbed by her hair and pulled into the water, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.

The sheriff's office said rescuers where not able to immediately jump in and help due to the whale's aggressive nature. Brancheau was not pulled from the water until other employees were able to coax the whale into a smaller pool.

A death investigation is ongoing and the sheriff's office said there are no signs of foul play.

OSHA officials were at the park all day Thursday. Local 6 News reported that part of their investigation will include an incident when OSHA fined SeaWorld's San Diego park in 2006.

In that incident, a trainer was bitten on the feet and held underwater by a whale, but escaped. OSHA officials said it is still an open investigation.

OSHA officials said the earlier incident is important because may show that the park had to do more to protect its trainers.

Chuck Tompkins, chief of animal training at SeaWorld parks, said only Brancheau and other experienced trainers were allowed near the whale that killer her, Tilikum, because of its unpredictable past.

OSHA officials said they will look at those procedures to see if they were enough to protect the trainers.

The sheriff's office clarified that first responders believed Brancheau had slipped and fallen into the pool, but witness statements indicated the trainer was pulled into the pool.

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The 911 calls from the incident have not been reviewed and are not available for release.

SeaWorld announced on Thursday it will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. Friday.

Witness Recounts Fatal Incident

Emergency personnel were called to the park just after 2 p.m. and found Brancheau dead, according to Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said deputies went to the theme park after receiving a call that an employee had been attacked and injured in the "killer whale tank" in front of an audience.

Brancheau was pronounced dead at the park after being pulled from the tank, the sheriff's office said.

"It is with great sadness that I report one of our most experienced trainers has drowned in an incident with one of our whales," park manager Dan Brown said.

"When she leaned over, she had a braid of hair in a ponytail, that hair swung in front of her. He probably sensed that hair was there. He grabbed it with his mouth and puller her under water," Tompkins said Wednesday night.

Tompkins denied the implication by some park guests that the whales were visibly upset prior to the incident. One witness described Tilikum as "agitated."

"That is incorrect information. It was reported by Dawn prior to the incident, along with the trainers, that she had just had a great session with Tilikum, He had shown normal behavior, all the other animals were normal. Nothing would indicate that there was any problem whatsoever," Tompkins said.

OSHA investigators said they were looking at both versions of the events.

SeaWorld said Tilikum remained in isolation, but there were no plans to euthanize the animal or release him back into the wild.

Brancheau had 16 years experience working with killer whales, the sheriff's office said.

SeaWorld Orlando was open on Thursday, but shows featuring the park's killer whales have been suspended.

"We have never in the history of our parks experienced an incident like this and all of our standard operating procedures will be under review," Brown said.

Witness Victoria Biniak said she saw the deadly incident from a viewing area.

"The trainer was explaining different things about the whale and then the trainer that was down there walked away from the window. Then Telly (the whale) took off really fast in the tank and he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing (her) around," Biniak said.

Biniak said the attack was so violent that it caused the trainer's shoe to fly off.

"He was thrashing her around pretty good. It was violent," Briniak said.

Tilikum, the whale involved in the incident, is a nearly 30-year-old, 12,300-pound bull orca.

Killer whale expert Nancy Black said the whale could have been playing and the incident could have been an accident.

"They are very intelligent creatures. They have emotions, and feelings. Maybe it was unhappy in the situation, maybe it was bored," Black said.

Tilikum was one of three whales blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 at Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia.

A man's body was also found draped over Tilikum at Orlando SeaWorld in July 1999. Daniel Dukes reportedly made his way past security at SeaWorld and either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water of Tilikum's huge tank. An autopsy ruled that he died of hypothermia, but authorities said it appeared Tilikum bit the man and tore off his swimming trunks.

In the November 2006 San Diego incident, trainer Kenneth Peters, 39, was bitten and held underwater several times by a 7,000-pound killer whale during a show. He escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot-long orca who attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego's seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters on two prior occasions, in 1993 and 1999.

In 2004, another whale at the company's San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.