Keiko: Freeing 'Free Willy'

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1998, Keiko became the first ever killer whale to be released back into the wild after a life of captivity. Keiko shot to fame as the star of the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster, Free Willy. A multimillion dollar campaign to free Keiko began following the success of the movie and he was flown back to his native country, Iceland. Dave Phillips was in charge of making it all happen. He has been sharing his memories with Matt Pintus. (Photo: Keiko in Iceland. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	The attacker had very good knowledge of banking systems.
0:04.2	$2.1 billion in stolen funds.
0:06.4	Money laundering operations.
0:07.7	The cyber-criminal group.
0:08.8	He's a smart guy.
0:09.8	From the BBC World Service, the Lazarus Heist is back for a brand new season.
0:14.1	Catch up with season one of the podcast now by searching for the Lazarus Heist,
0:18.4	wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:20.7	And get ready for season two coming next week.
0:30.2	Hello, you're listening to the Witness History Podcast
0:33.0	from the BBC World Service with me, Matt Pintas.
0:36.6	Today, freeing the world's most famous killer whale.
0:40.6	In 1998, Keiko, the star of Hollywood blockbuster Free Willy,
0:46.2	became the first ever Orca to be released back into the wild
0:50.1	after a life of captivity.
0:52.4	This is the story of the man who's ambition and can do spirit made it happen.
1:00.6	It's September 1998 in Newport, Oregon.
1:04.0	Dave Phillips is waiting to hear back from the US Air Force about a daring plan.
1:09.0	The pitch was made to the Air Force to consider doing this.
1:13.1	And they said, yes, only jet that could do it was a C-17,
1:17.0	which is one of the largest and most advanced aircraft in the world.
1:21.3	The C-17 is essential for Dave and his team.
	...

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