WITHA terrible video, allegedly filmed by someone in the audience of the performance during which the tragedy occurred, spread on Russian-language social networks in August 2025. We have checked its accuracy.

The video shows a performance at the aquarium: a trainer demonstrates tricks with a killer whale, but at some point the animal unexpectedly attacks her and drags her under water. The caption for the video usually says that the heroine of the video is named Jessica Radcliffe. She was allegedly a very experienced trainer of marine mammals and had worked for many years with the same orca that eventually attacked her in front of spectators. Some posts clarify the cause of the tragedy: supposedly Radcliffe decided to perform when she was menstruating, and the killer whale smelled blood. The video has collected hundreds of thousands of views in Facebook, TikTok And Instagram.

Viral video. Source: Facebook

Killer whales have a reputation for being extremely dangerous animals - they are even called killer whales. However, in the wild they do not attack humans - at least not a single such case has been recorded there wasn't. In captivity, they behave more aggressively and often attack people, and it is known that the same killer whales have done this more than once. Thus, Tilkum (a male killer whale who was caught at two years old) killed his trainer in 1991 Keltie Byrne, in 1999 - Daniel Dukes, who was in the aquarium after closing and, under unknown circumstances, ended up in the pool with the animal, and, finally, in 2010 - the trainer Don Branshaw.

All attacks by killer whales on trainers - especially fatal ones - were widely reported in the international press. The events were commented on by relatives of the victims, spectators, animal rights activists, representatives of the police and aquariums. In this case, nothing of the kind happened - the video allegedly depicting the death of Jessica Radcliffe circulates only on social networks.

Initially, the video was distributed in English, and different publications named different aquariums where the tragedy allegedly occurred. So, back in January 2025, it appeared on YouTube video, dedicated to two cases of killer whale attacks on people. One of them was the already mentioned Daniel Dukes, and the second was Jessica Radcliffe. The video said she worked at Ocean Haven Marine Park. However, such an aquarium does not exist. In another YouTube video it was alleged that the tragedy occurred at the Sealand Aquarium in Florida. However, “Verified” also found no traces of his existence, nor any traces of the existence of marine mammal trainer Jessica Radcliffe.

If you look closely at the videos about her death, you can see signs of the use of artificial intelligence. You need to pay attention to the characteristic signs: the crowd of spectators looks blurry and unrealistic, some figures have deformed limbs, etc. The DeepFake-o-meter service also confirms that the video is highly likely generated by neural networks.