The Greatest Show on Earth mourned a clown and an elephant trainer killed in the wreck of a circus train.
"It's a very close family and we've just lost two members of that family," said Mike Connors, a worker with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. "It's a little bit gloomy on the train right now."Ceslee Conkling, 28, from Fort Worth, Texas, a 1991 graduate of the circus' Clown College in Venice, and chief elephant trainer Theodore Svertesky, 39, of Bridgeport, Conn., were killed Thursday when the train jumped the tracks.
Fourteen circus workers suffered minor injuries in the derailment of the 53-car train carrying the show from St. Petersburg to a three-day stand in Orlando.
Cars carrying elephants, horses, lions, buffalo and bears remained upright and none of the more than 60 animals aboard were harmed, circus officials said.
Circus officials made no immediate decision on whether to go ahead with tonight's performance in Orlando. But the troupe's unit manager promised to uphold the circus tradition.
"The show always goes on," David Cohen said. "I suspect we will be late, but the show always goes on."
The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to determine the cause of the wreck. An initial investigation by rail and sheriff's officials ruled out sabotage.
A news helicopter buzzing above the scene crashed in a ballfield a half-mile from the derailment, injuring the pilot and a photographer.
About 150 Ringling employees, from Russian acrobats to British animal trainers, were aboard the train.
"I wake up and go to the restroom," said Kydyrjan Boulibekov, an equestrian from the former Soviet Union. "It happened while I walk. Maybe it saved me, because where I slept the refrigerator fell down."