Harrison Okene, one of 12 men aboard the Jascon-4 off the coast of Nigeria, faced a harrowing ordeal on May 26, 2013, when a wave hit the ship, sinking it to the seafloor. At 29 years old, Okene was working as a cook on the vessel. As water flooded the ship, he acted quickly, finding a narrow chance of survival in an air pocket.
“We were sinking before we knew it,” Okene told 9News. “We had sailed for many years without problems. I battled to stay alive, wondering how long the air pocket would last.”
Trapped at the bottom of the ocean, Okene’s thoughts were with his family. “I was thinking about my wife, what would happen to her, how I could get out, and my life,” he shared.
Before becoming trapped, he managed to gather small amounts of food and cola, which sustained him. For nearly three days, crayfish nibbled at his skin as he remained submerged.
“I tried to kill the fear,” he told The Guardian. “Panic can kill you quicker than anything. Once you start panicking, you use too much oxygen.”
Diver Alex Gibbs, on duty at the time, was stunned to find Okene alive. “I was excited and couldn’t believe it,” he said. Contrary to popular belief, it is the buildup of CO2, not the lack of oxygen, that is fatal in confined spaces. By the time he was found, Okene’s CO2 levels were high, evident from his panting and glazed eyes in the video.
Despite the traumatic experience, Okene retrained as a diver in 2015. “I have faced many fears in my life, and I decided to face this one too,” he said. Today, Okene is an IMCA Class Two Commercial Air Diver.
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