Commercial diver Michael Packard has been swallowed whole by a whale in the past, but he revealed that this isn’t the scariest thing that has happened in his life.
Next time you think you have bad luck, it might be worth thinking about this man.
Millions know about his encounter with a whale, which almost ended his life, as he was suddenly swallowed whole before a miraculous survival.
Apparently, something far more terrifying happened years earlier, which changed the way he perceives danger.
It’s why he reacted the way he did when he was swallowed by a whale, which would be enough to scar the majority of the general population.
As an experienced lobster diver, Packard set off in the early morning for work one day, leaving the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Little did he know that he would later spend some time inside the belly of a beast.
How did Michael Packard get swallowed by a whale?
After two uneventful dives, he expected the third to go to plan.
But suddenly, Packard felt a strong force collide around him, recalling to Cape Cod Times: “It was like a freight train.”
Everything went black as water surrounded his body as he was sent through the ocean water, and he thought he was attacked by a shark at first.
But instead, he was inside a whale’s mouth, where there was no visibility and water could be felt violently gushing around him.
His breathing regulator had become dislodged, but he luckily reconnected it so he could keep breathing, though he remembered thinking: “This is it, this is how you die.”
He thought about his wife and children, certain that this was it, but within less than a minute, despite slowing down for Packard, the whale shot to the surface and shook its head.
The diver flew out of its mouth, and found himself back in open water, floating on the surface and reflecting on what just happened, seconds after accepting the fate of death.
While he escaped the whale, he suffered a sudden change in depth, which can cause decompression sickness – this can happen to divers if they descend too quickly to the surface.
He recalled thinking: “I’m messed up, I know, but I think I’m going to live.”
As many heard about his story, marine experts described the incident as rare, but possible.
They noted that Humpback whales, the species believed to have swallowed Packard, can’t swallow humans into their stomachs due to the size of their narrow throats.
They can accidentally scoop up large objects during feeding, before expelling anything they can’t consume.
“I’m still the same old guy doing my same old stuff,” Packard said with positivity.
Somehow, though, Packard has had a more terrifying experience years prior.
The whale both swallowed and spat Packard out in under a minute. Credit: By wildestanimal / Getty
Michael Packard survived an aircraft crash
Packard has lived a life worthy of a Hollywood film, as he recounted the time he was left stranded in the jungle after his plane crashed.
Years before the whale incident, he was left nursing some serious injuries in the wild in what he called the most frightening thing he’d ever experienced.
In the crash, he suffered a punctured lung, four broken ribs, a severed Achilles tendon, later needing 180 stitches to his head.
While the whale encounter was horrifying, it was done within a minute, while Packard was stuck in the wild for three days, unable to escape until rescuers came to his aid.
He remembered being alone with his thoughts with little hope of his survival, doubting he’d ever be found, remembering: “I probably would have lasted another day.”
But the emotional scars from being isolated in the jungle for days on end with no help left more of a mark on the diver.
He says that this was the main difference between the two near-death experiences.
The battle against his injuries and mental well-being was more of a psychologically devastating experience.
In comparison to being swallowed by a whale, it was far more traumatic, according to Packard.
