1.2K SharesSteve Irwin passed away on Sept. 4, 2006, and are still incredibly distressing. The Crocodile Hunter was only 44 years old when he was fatally stabbed by a stingray in a freak accident.
Widow of late Crocodile Hunter telling 20/20 that the video footage of her. In her first interview since her husband's death, Steve Irwin's widow, Terri, said that. May 23, 2014 Steffen Hill, 30, shot the footage from a boat on the Great Barrier Reef; Steve Irwin died the next day when stabbed by an eight foot-wide stingray; By Sarah Dean.
While filming an underwater documentary called Ocean's Deadliest at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, the famed television personality and his cameraman Justin Lyons came face to face with an eight-foot-wide stingray when they went snorkeling in shallow waters to obtain footage for his daughter's children's program Bindi the Jungle Girl. After a few takes, the two decided to go back in the water for 'one last shot' of Steve standing behind the stingray as it swam back into the ocean.
Related:While stingrays are usually pretty docile, out of nowhere the creature started 'stabbing wildly with its tail.' Justin, who is said to be the sole witness of the attack, added that there must have been 'hundreds of strikes within a few seconds.' While Steve initially thought the stingray had punctured his lung, they soon realized the extent of his injury was much greater.The stingray's barb had actually pierced his heart, and Steve quickly began to bleed out.
As the crew headed back to the main vessel, Justin tried his best to comfort Steve. 'He was in extraordinary pain. The damage to his heart was massive,' he explained. 'I was saying to him things like, 'Think of your kids, Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on.' He calmly looked up at me and said, 'I'm dying.' And that was the last thing he said.
Those were his final words.' Justin continued performing CPR as they rushed him to the nearby Low Isles, but sadly, medical staff pronounced him dead upon arrival. Since Steve was known for putting himself in danger for his work, Justin admitted he always had a feeling he would die in a 'weird' way. 'It was probably always going to be something weird with Steve. It would always be a crazy, silly accident,' he said.
'And as it turns out that's exactly what it was.' Today, and their kids, and 15-year-old Robert, continue to honor his legacy with and shared love for animals. In 2018, they celebrated Steve as.
Now, in a moving interview with Network Ten's Studio 10 show, Justin has opened up about Steve irwin's death for the very first time.He explained: 'Stingrays are normally very calm - if they don’t want you to be near them, they’ll swim away.' We stood up and said, ‘One last shot.
You swim up from behind the animal and I’ll try to get a shot of it swimming away'.' All of a sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail. Hundreds of strikes in a few seconds.' I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away - I didn’t even know it had caused any damage.
It wasn’t until I panned the camera back and Steve was standing in a huge pool of blood that I realised something was wrong.' He also insisted that, contrary to reports at the time, Steve did NOT try and remove the barb, saying: 'The stingray barb was a blade of about a foot extending out of the tail. Steve didn’t pull it out; it’s a jagged, sharp barb and it went through Steve’s chest like a hot knife through butter.' VIDEO: Watch Steve's wife Terri Irwin give her first TV interview following her husband's death. Explaining that Steve was in extreme pain when they dragged him above water and on to the boat, Justin said that they 'hoped for a miracle' - but attempts to save the wildlife presenter were futile:'We assessed the situation for about five seconds. He had a two-inch injury over his heart with blood coming out of it.'
He was in extraordinary pain - they've got a venom on their barb, so I knew it must've been painful.' He just sort of calmly looked up at me and said, ‘I’m dying’.
And that was the last thing he said We hoped for a miracle. I did CPR on him for over an hour before the medics came, but then they pronounced him dead within 10 seconds of looking at him.' The footage of his death has been a source of controversy since 2006, but Irwin always insisted the cameras must always stay rolling regardless of any accident or ordeal.