‘Instantly I knew I was in a whale’: Chilean kayaker wasn’t the first man to join the modern day Jonah club

A video of a young man on a kayak getting swallowed by a humpback whale and then promptly expelled has gone viral online for being absolutely astonishing. But, as it turns out, he’s actually not the first person to experience the wet, slimy environment of the inside of a whale’s mouth. And we’re not talking about Jonah.

The video, which depicts Chilean kayaker Adrian Simancas and his impressively cool-headed father, was so unbelievable that we were convinced it was AI for a few good minutes. Upon realizing it was real, it sent us on a quest to learn more about the freaky incident in order to ascertain whether Simancas was the only person to ever live to tell the tale. Well, besides Jonah, the biblical prophet, and Pinocchio and Geppetto, of course.

According to multiple sources, experts say there is about a 1-in-1-trillion chance of getting swallowed by a whale, but it sounds like this is more or less a biennial occurrence — and these survivors should definitely start a club.

In 2019, 51-year-old South African wildlife photographer Rainer Schimpf was caught and swiftly spat out by a Bryde’s whale while attempting to capture sardine runs. A friend, watching on from a boat with Schimpf’s wife, captured the moment. “I held my breath and I was prepared, and that’s the only thing I could do,” he told TODAY.

Diver Rainer Schimpf describes the shocking moment he was almost swallowed alive by a whale! 🐋 pic.twitter.com/n0EobTMGDN

— This Morning (@thismorning) March 16, 2019

Two years later, Cape Cod Lobster diver Michael Packard, 56, was doing his job on a regular Friday morning when he was swallowed whole by the same type of whale that got his 24-year-old Chilean counterpart.

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 … I could feel pressure on my whole body.”

Speaking to Cape Cod Times one year after the terrifying yet weirdly incredible experience, Packard continued, “Instantly I knew I was in a whale.”

Simancas described it similarly: “I felt a blow from the back, as if it was propping me up and sucking me down at the same time. The feeling of when you’re struck by a wave, but it was way too strong,” he told the Chilean morning show Buenos Días a Todos. The young kayaker recalled seeing nothing but a dark blue/black environment and feeling a “slobbery texture” rub up against his face.

☀️#BuenosDíasTVN | Escuchamos el testimonio de Adrián Simancas, joven kayakista que fue tragado por una ballena jorobada.

📲 Señal #ENVIVOTVN https://t.co/sKRic98NgD

📲 #Youtube ➡️https://t.co/aAVO6iMam3 pic.twitter.com/E3en35ruLp

— Buenos Días a Todos (@BuenosDiasTVN) February 13, 2025

All three men escaped unscathed, although Packard, who suffered the most violent and lengthy encounter of the three, came out of the experience with some bruises and a dislocated knee.

Keep in mind that, unlike Jonah and the characters in the Disney tale, they could never actually end up in the whale’s stomach. These marine mammals’ throats are too narrow to swallow a whole human. According to whalescientists.com, baleen whales’ esophagus are the size of a tennis ball and, while toothed whales have larger throats, they’re still not large enough. Humans are a choking hazard and likely to get spat out instead, as these three fascinating stories illustrate.

As Simancas explains, “It was probably out of curiosity that the whale had approached me, or maybe to communicate something.” “They’re gentle giants,” adds Schimpf. And that dichotomy is why they’re some of the most captivating animals on this little rock.