A lobster diver claims that he was swallowed and spat out by a humpback whale.

According to BBC News, fisherman Michael Packard says that he was diving off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts, when the marine mammal swam up to him and took him into its mouth for 30-40 seconds.

Amazingly, despite being swallowed whole by the underwater behemoth, the 56-year-old was only left with a dislocated knee after being spat out by the animal.

According to the WWF, humpback whales can grow up to 50ft (15m) in length and weigh about 36 tons (72,000lbs).

In a later interview with WBZ-TV News, Packard stated that he and his crewmate, captain Joe Francis, took their boat, the Ja'n J, on a voyage off Herring Cove on Friday morning with water visibility at about 20ft.

Packard stated that after donning his scuba gear and jumping into the water, he felt "this huge bump and everything went dark."

After initially believing that he had been bitten by a shark, Packard said: "Then I felt around, and I realized there was no teeth and I had felt, really, no great pain."

He continued: "I realized: 'Oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth and he's trying to swallow me. This is it, I'm going die'."

Revealing what he was thinking while in the whale's mouth, Packard said: "One of the things that went through my mind was just, 'Oh, my God, what if he does swallow me, and here I am, I'm breathing air, and I'm going to breathe in this whale's mouth until my air runs out?'"

"Then all of a sudden he went up to the surface and just erupted and started shaking his head," Packard revealed. "I just got thrown in the air and landed in the water. I was free and I just floated there. I couldn't believe [it]. I'm here to tell it."

Meanwhile, Packard's crewmate had been desperately scanning the surface of the sea to try to locate him. When Captain Francis spotted the bubbles from Packard's oxygen respirator, he managed to find him again and hauled him back into their boat.

Francis later told WBZ-TV News: "I saw Mike come flying out of the water feet first with his flippers on and land back in the water.

"I jumped aboard the boat. We got him up, got his tank off. Got him on the deck and calmed him down and he goes: 'Joe, I was in the mouth of a whale.' He goes: ‘I can’t believe it, I was in the mouth of a whale Joe!'"

Having survived his ordeal, the real-life Jonah was then taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, where his injured leg was treated by medics.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels/Andrea Holien

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.

Featured image credit: wildestanimal / Getty

When it comes to scary things that can happen to you, being swallowed whole by an actual whale must be up there as the scariest. In fact, if somehow this situation did arise, we doubt you would ever experience anything scarier in your entire life.

Not, however, if you happen to be Michael Packard.

On June 11, 2021, lobster diver Packard ventured out at sunrise and took in a couple of routine dives. On his third excursion below the surface though, things went a little bit too south.

Speaking to The Cape Cod Times, Packard explained, "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.

"And I'm like 'what the f**k'. And instantly I knew I was in a whale, not a shark […] and then my regulator fell out […] and I was like, 'I better grab that f**king thing'. And I put it back in my mouth. And I'm in there, and I'm trying to get out, and [the whale's] f**king freaking out."

Unsurprisingly, the 59-year-old didn't have high hopes for survival once he realized what was happening.

"And I'm thinking to myself, 'This is it, Michael. This is it. This is how you die'. And I was 100 percent sure that […] I wouldn't get out of this situation. It was a done deal, and I thought about my kids and my wife."

Yet, remarkably, the whale decided it had other plans for breakfast and spat Packard back out.

"All of a sudden [the whale] just got to the surface and he started shaking his head and getting all erratic […] and then boom! I f**king fly out of his mouth. And I'm like, 'Oh my god.'

"I'm floating, cos my suit is like a dry suit and I didn't have time to deflate it when I was coming up, because the air expands, of course. So here I am, this big blimp on the surface. Thank god I kept breathing, so I didn't get the bends, or whatever."

While Packard may have taken offense at not being a tasty enough morning snack for the whale, this horrifying experience doesn't even top the lobster diver's list of scariest moments. That particular title goes to the time he was in a plane crash.

In 2001, Packard was onboard a flight in Costa Rica from San José to Puerto Jimenez when the plane crashed, killing three people. Packard and four other passengers managed to survive in the jungle for two nights with multiple broken bones before being rescued.

"What haunts me more is my plane crash. 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."

So, naturally, you would expect that a man who has been through all of this is looking at taking it easy for the rest of his life. Right?

Wrong.

Packard explained that his perspective on life is: "I'm still the same old guy doing my same old s**t."

So maybe if you notice him in your vicinity at any point in the future, just do yourselves a favor and go in the opposite direction. Just to be safe.

Featured Image Credit: Alejandro Menoscal/Agencia Press South/Getty Images

Many of us will have heard the story of Jonah and the whale, but who among us is familiar with Rainer Schimpf?

Last week, the 51-year-old dive tour operator had a very lucky escape after being swept into the jaws of a Bryde’s Whale. He had been snorkelling with two colleagues off the coast of his native country of South Africa at the time of the incident, which thankfully left him uninjured.

By sheer chance, the moment was actually caught on camera by his friend, photographer Heinz Toperczer, who had been watching Schimpf from a nearby boat. The pictures very quickly went viral, with many people wondering how the diver managed to get away from the ordeal unscathed.

Now, after having some time to recover, Schimpf revealed has how he escaped.

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"There was no time for fear or any emotion," he told the Telegraph.

"I knew instantly what had happened. I knew that a whale had come and taken me and I instinctively held my breath, assuming that it would dive down again and spit me out somewhere in the depths of the Indian Ocean.

"I felt enormous pressure around my waist which is when I guess the whale realized his mistake."

In fact, it was the whale's actions that set Schimpf free.

"As the whale turned sideways, he opened his mouth slightly to release me and I was washed out, together with what felt like tons of water, of his mouth, while the whale himself was swallowing all the fish in his throat."

"I was just holding myself and bracing myself and calming myself down not to be panicked, and it worked out,'' the diver told Today. "He spat me out and everybody's happy."

But in those brief moments of uncertainty, Schimpf was concerned that he was about to be pulled down into the ocean

"My thought was that obviously it can't swallow me, because the throat of a whale is not big enough to swallow a human, and my next thought was it's most likely going to dive down with me,'' he said, noting that he would have been absolutely powerless if that had happened, as "you can't fight a 15-ton animal."

But the gravity of the situation did not strike Schimpf until later on that day.

"On our return in the evening Heinz checked his images and it was only once I saw them that I realized just how lucky I was to be looking at them," he told the Telegraph. "Seconds decide if you become prey, seconds decide your survival and seconds are all that counts."

But the diver bears no animosity towards the whale, and acknowledges that it was "definitely not an attack."

"[The whale] was going for the fish and I happened to be in the wrong spot," he said. "I was collateral damage and I’m sure it was as frightening for the whale as it was for me."

Unlike Jonah, then, Schimpf only had to suffer a few seconds of torment - but that's certainly enough for one lifetime!