Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Woman on boat in Florida Keys hit by Eagle Ray

An eagle ray weighing as much as 300 pounds landed on top of a woman on a boat in the Florida Keys last week, throwing her to the deck and pinning her underneath it. The woman, Jenny Hausch, was on the chartered boat Friday with her husband and three children, taking pictures of a group of eagle rays as they flew out of the water. "One of the rays jumped in the air and she gets this perfect shot," the captain said, adding that rays always jump twice. On the second jump, one ray hit her in the chest and she fell down, hitting her head. "It keeps slamming and slamming on top of her, trying to swim away," the captain said. Hausch's husband and children watched in horror. Two Florida Fish and Wildlife officers who happened to be on a nearby boat heard the screaming and came to help pull the ray off of Hausch. Everyone thought that Hausch was dead, but when she was freed she didn't have a scratch on her. Source