… besides Firestarter and our resident JamieR: When a three-metre crocodile latched on to the arm of an 11-year-old girl swimming behind his boat, skipper Ray Turner leapt into action. The former crocodile hunter dived from the boat, landed on the back of the reptile and gouged one of its eyes until it freed the girl. Hannah Thompson was swimming with other children at Margaret Bay near the top of Cape York Peninsula yesterday when the crocodile attacked. Mr Turner heard screams and a shout of “crocodile” and in no time was hurtling through the air towards the water.
“I was pitching myself off the boat and I could see the black shadow in the water. He came out when I was already launched and I landed right on him,” he said today. “I landed fair on its back and I got a finger in its left eye, I missed the right eye, but he got a fright and he let go,” said the 57-year-old, who hunted crocs in Papua New Guinea more than 30 years ago. He estimated the croc to be around 3.3 metres long. “They will always let go when you go for an eye because it’s their vulnerable point and their livelihood.”
I’d like to think that I’d go after a croc if it was attacking a child. But I’d probably have to drop an f-bomb or two first.