Cal Gaunt
A man who was swallowed whole by a whale says it wasn’t even the scariest thing to happen to him.
In a remarkable real-life tale that seems straight out of a Hollywood movie like Finding Nemo, Michale Packard found himself engulfed by a whale and miraculously, he emerged alive.
While Packard probably didn’t channel his inner Dory and communicate with the whale to orchestrate his escape, he did, in his own words, ‘f***ing fly out’ of the massive creature’s mouth.
The extraordinary chain of events unfolded when he embarked on an early morning diving excursion.
Learn more about Michale Packard being swallowed by a whale in the video below…
Packard’s first two dives went smoothly, but luck was not on his side during the third descent, as he was struck by an unexpected and formidable force.
Describing the harrowing experience, he recounted: “And I just got slammed. Just like a freight train […] and then all of a sudden it went black.
“And water was just rushing, rushing around me, and black, and I could feel pressure on my whole body. And I was just moving through the water like wicked fast.”
Despite the darkness and disorientation, Packard quickly realised he had been swallowed by a whale, not attacked by a shark, as he initially suspected.
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The intense pressure caused his regulator to dislodge from his mouth, prompting him to retrieve it urgently, exclaiming: “I better grab that f***ing thing.”
Within the whale’s belly, Packard grappled to free himself, all while the distressed creature thrashed about.
The entire situation was far from ideal for a man simply hoping to catch a few crustaceans.
Recalling his thoughts in those dire moments, Packard confessed to Cape Cod Times: “And I’m thinking to myself, ‘This is it, Michael. This is it. This is how you die’.
“And I was 100% sure that I wouldn’t get out of this situation. It was a done deal, and I thought about my kids and my wife.”
However, defying all odds, a remarkable turn of events unfolded.
The whale abruptly surfaced, displaying erratic behaviour and violently shaking its head.
As Packard vividly describes: “And then boom! I f***ing fly out of his mouth. And I’m like, ‘Oh my god’.”
Floating on the water’s surface, he became aware of his inflated dry suit, causing him to resemble a blimp.
Grateful for his continued ability to breathe, he recognised the danger of decompression sickness, commonly known as ‘the bends’.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Packard said: “And I was just looking up in the sky. I’m f***ed up, I know, but I think I’m going to live.”
True to his words, he indeed survived this astonishing encounter.
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Yet, the whale incident wasn’t the only brush with danger Packard has experienced.
As he revealed, he had also been involved in a plane crash, adding an eerie layer to his already remarkable life story.
Recounting the details of the crash, Packard shared: “I sat in the jungle for three days […] punctured lung and four broken ribs, 180 stitches in my head, cut Achilles.
“I probably would have lasted another day, so I had a lot of time to think about my mortality, so that was definitely more PTSD than this.”
One might expect such near-death encounters to have transformed Packard’s perspective on life, but he humorously remarked: “I’m still the same old guy doing my same old s***.”
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