 a little more
On the day of his death
JOHN STAINTON (Irwin's longtime business partner and friend who was with him the day of his death.): "It was the first day we'd had sunshine for about two or three days. He'd been sitting around for a couple of days and not working that much he said to me I'll go off and shoot segments for Bindi's show on the reef. Fine. The best thing that ever happened in terms of the circumstances was I never actually said to him, "Go and do this," I always had the fear in my life that I would direct him to go and do something and that would happen and I would feel like I'd caused it. But he actually did it himself. It was like he lifted that burden from me."
JOHN STAINTON: "It was called the bull ray. It was covered in sand. They bury themselves in the sand for camouflage and Steve was coming around over the top of it and the barb, the tail came up like that, went straight into his chest. And I saw his hands just pull it out like that and the next thing he just went up and I think there was blood in the water and I think that was after that I can't remember that."
BARBARA WALTERS: "There were those who said that the sting ray felt trapped because Steve was on top of it and the camera was close?"
JOHN STAINTON: "The camera wasn't close. The camera was probably 6, 8, 10 feet."
BARBARA WALTERS: "Had Steve worked with sting rays before?"
JOHN STAINTON: "A lot of times."
BARBARA WALTERS: "You have been with Steve for 15 years. In your words, what kind of a man was he?"
JOHN STAINTON: "He was a one-of-a-kind man. There's just no one else like him, ever. We had a special bond He was a pretty special human being. And I just want the world to know there will never be another Steve Irwin. Ever."
John Stainton on the footage of the accident:
JOHN STAINTON: "I'd never want to see it again, but I don't want anybody else to see it at all. And it should never be aired. It's just a horrible piece of film tape."
Posted 9/26/2006 10:35 PM ET |