Steve Irwin’s haunting final words before being killed by stingray 14 years ago

Steve Irwin, the legendary and seemingly invincible Crocodile Hunter knew that his time was up after he was attacked by a stingray in September 2006.

While shooting a documentary entitled Ocean’s Deadliest on the Great Barrier Reef, the 44-year-old uttered his final words while gasping for air.

The wildlife presenter’s last words on earth were captured by cameraman Justin Lyons who has since opened up about the devastating experience of watching his friend pass away before his eyes.

Steve’s long-term crew member Justin revealed that the crew had been out on an inflatable boat when they spotted a massive stingray swimming through water.

In a bid to capture some amazing footage, the pair decided to carefully slip out of the boat and into the water to get a closer look at the sea creature.

After several minutes of shooting around the stingray, Justin recalled Steve asking to secure ‘one last shot’ before they finished filming for the day.

The plan was for the Crocodile Hunter to swim behind the dangerous stingray in order for his perfectionist cameraman to bag a shot of the ‘massive’ creature swimming away.

He told Australian morning program Studio 10: “I had the camera and thought this was going to be a great shot. But all a sudden the stingray propped on its front and started stabbing Steve with its tail.

“There were hundreds of strikes within just a few seconds” he added.

The stabs came from a dangerously sharp barb at the end stingray’s tail, which rapidly pierced Steve’s chest leaving him gasping for air.

Immediately, the wildlife presenter felt excruciating pain after the sea creatures stab “went through his chest like a hot knife through butter”.

Justin recalled his dear friend standing in a huge pool of blood after the attack before he was pulled back into the boat where he voiced his final words.

While Steve fought for his life, his cameraman urged him to think of his family – wife Terri and children Bindi and Robert – but unfortunately, it was too late.

According to his final memory of Steve, Justin recalled his friend looking up at him calmly and uttering the words “I’m dying”.

“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.”

A proud dad of two, Irwin’s son and daughter were just three and eight years old at the time.

Following their father’s tragic death, both Bindi and Robert have followed in his footsteps.

His daughter Bindi, 22, who is expecting her first child with her new husband, is now a wildlife conservationist while his son Robert, 16, is a wildlife photographer.

More On

Steve IrwinCrocodile Hunter