Mr Packard acknowledged that the incident happened on “a normal day”. (unsplash/rep)
A man from the United States has recalled how he nearly died last year after being swallowed by a giant humpback whale.
Back in June 2021, Michael Packard from Massachusetts discussed how he was trapped inside the mouth of a humpback whale for about 40 seconds. Subsequently, in an interview Cape Cod TimesHe noted that when he went into the water to dive, he was about 10 feet from the bottom, before being swallowed whole by the mammal.
Now, a year later, Mr Packard, a veteran lobster diver, has spoken again about how the incident happened, acknowledging how it happened on “a normal day”.
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talking to Cape Cod TimesMr. Packard explained, “I landed in the water and I did two dives. And then (on the third dive), I landed and I was descending to the bottom. And I was just on the bottom. And I just got slammed.” . Just like a freight train… and then suddenly it turned black.”
He remembered how the water was running around him, as he was moving “wickedly fast” and he could “feel the pressure on (his) whole body”. He revealed that as he was still in the giant whale’s mouth, his breathing apparatus had fallen off, which he tried to capture, as he was concerned about how he was “going to die”.
“I was like, ‘I better hold on to that f***ing thing,'” Mr. Packard said of the device. “And I put it back in my mouth. And there I am, and I’m trying to get out, and [the whale is] F***ing freaking out,” he said.
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘That’s it, Michael. That’s it. That’s how you die,'” he continued. “And I was 100 percent sure I wouldn’t get out of this situation. It was a deal, and I thought about my kids and my wife.”
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Fortunately, however, Mr Packard told the outlet that he eventually passed out of the whale’s mouth, as the mammal began to surface and was “shaking its head”. The whale went all precarious, he said, “And then boom! I’m flying through his mouth. And I’m like, ‘Oh my god.'”
Mr Packard further said that once he was swimming to the surface, he thought how grateful he was that his “lungs didn’t burst” while in the whale’s mouth.