Mr Packard acknowledged that the incident happened on “just a normal day”. (Unsplash/Representative)
A man from the United States recalls how he nearly died last year after being swallowed by a giant humpback whale.
In June 2021, Michael Packard of Massachusetts discussed how he was trapped in the mouth of a humpback whale for about 40 seconds. Then, in an interview with Cape Cod Timeshe had noticed 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, who is an experienced lobster diver, has spoken again about how the incident happened, acknowledging that it happened on “just a normal day”.
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Speak with Cape Cod Timesexplained Mr Packard: “I got in the water and I did two dives. And then (on the) third dive I dove down and I went down to the bottom. And I was about to go to the bottom And I just came slammed. Like a freight train… and then all of a sudden it went black.”
He recalled how the water just flowed around him, as he moved through it “badly fast” and he could “feel pressure all over his body”. He revealed that while he was still in the giant whale’s mouth, his breathing apparatus had fallen out, which he tried to grab, fearing he would “die” this way.
“I thought, ‘I’d better get the damn thing,'” Mr. Packard said of the device. “And I put it back in my mouth. And I’m there, and I’m trying to get out, and… [the whale is] f***ing freaking out,” he added.
“I think to myself, ‘This is it, Michael. This is it. This is how you die,'” he continued. “And I was 100 percent sure I wasn’t going to get out of this situation. It was a foregone conclusion and I was thinking about my kids and my wife.”
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Fortunately, Mr. Packard told the outlet that it eventually came out of the whale’s mouth, as the mammal began to surface and “shake its head.” The whale got all freaky, he said, adding, “And then boom! I’m fucking flying out of his mouth. And I’m like, ‘Oh my god.'”
Mr. Packard went on to say that once he floated to the surface, he remembered how thankful he was that his “lungs didn’t explode” while in the whale’s mouth.
