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Water can be a lethal force in many ways. Whether it’s a boating mishap, a sudden flood, or a bizarre accident involving machinery like a riding mower, water can rapidly transform into a perilous enemy. Thankfully, as these 10 remarkable underwater rescue tales show, such events don't always end in tragedy.
10. Harrison Odjegba Okene
Despite being trapped underwater in the Atlantic Ocean aboard a sunken tugboat for three days, Harrison Odjegba Okene miraculously survived, making him the only member of the 12-person crew to live. An air pocket in one of the boat’s cabins and a bottle of Coca-Cola kept him alive.
Okene had been in the bathroom when the tugboat capsized at around 5:00 AM on May 26, 2013, off Nigeria's coast. As he tried to reach an exit hatch with three other men, a surge of water swept the others away. Okene knew in his heart that they were gone.
While sitting on floating mattresses, fish swam through the submerged vessel. The stench of his deceased crewmates filled the air, and Okene was horrified to realize that the fish were feasting on their bodies. When he spotted a diver sent to retrieve the bodies, Okene tapped on the diver and was saved.
9. Roger Chapman And Roger Mallinson
On August 29, 1973, Royal Navy submariner Roger Chapman, 28, and engineer Roger Mallinson, 35, were inside Pisces III, a tiny submersible they had been using to lay transatlantic telephone cables. While waiting to be towed to the surface, the hatch to the aft sphere of the submersible was unexpectedly “pulled off.” The vessel plummeted like a stone to the seabed, resting at a depth of 480 meters (1,575 ft).
The pair managed to contact the crew above aboard their ship via telephone. With only 66 hours of oxygen remaining, Chapman and Mallinson carefully rationed their oxygen supply, holding off on eating their last sandwich and drinking their final can of lemonade.
After several failed attempts, rescuers finally managed to attach a towline to the submersible, lifting Chapman and Mallinson to safety. They were rescued just in time, with only 12 minutes of oxygen left in the submersible. They celebrated their survival with the sandwich and lemonade they had saved.
8. Louisiana Woman And Her Dog
Caught in her sinking car during a flash flood in Louisiana in 2016, a woman was filled with panic. “Oh, my God! I’m drowning!” she cried out. Despite their efforts, men in a boat couldn’t break the car’s windows with a pole. One of the rescuers then tore the fabric of the convertible roof, but the car ultimately sank.
One of the men jumped into the water and managed to pull her from the car. She quickly told them her dog was still inside and begged them to rescue her pet. The man who had saved her dove back under the water, but when he resurfaced, he returned “empty-handed,” disappointing the woman.
His second attempt proved successful. “I have your dog,” he said, as he brought the “tiny white pooch” above the surface.
7. Chuck Staples
While engaged in “underwater construction work,” diver Chuck Staples, 29, became trapped on a pipe. This occurred 90 meters (300 ft) off a Staten Island pier after 2:00 PM on December 28, 1987.
Wearing a diving helmet, Staples “was connected by a hose to a compressor on the surface” which allowed him to communicate. The site’s office manager, Jim O’Keefe, and local authorities agreed that Staples was not in immediate “severe danger.”
He was rescued when “other scuba divers secured his surroundings with sandbags and attached a line to lift the obstruction from him.” After being examined at Jacoby Hospital and found uninjured, Staples was released.
6. Seth De Luca
On a June evening in 2016, 14-year-old Seth De Luca jumped off a pontoon boat into White Oak Lake in Germantown Hills, Illinois, but never resurfaced. Josh Dixon, 19, who was shooting hoops nearby, noticed a disturbance as his neighbors hurried “to the lake behind his house.”
A former swim team member, Dixon was an experienced swimmer. He located De Luca and, with the help of a neighbor, brought him back to the surface. After being rushed to the hospital, De Luca, who had been underwater for 15 minutes, was listed in critical condition.
Thankfully, De Luca made a full recovery and attended a ceremony in Eureka, Illinois, where he witnessed his rescuer, Dixon, receive an award from the Woodford County sheriff in front of a “standing room only” crowd.
5. Charles ‘Dale’ Ostrander
While swimming in the Pacific Ocean with his church youth group, 12-year-old Charles “Dale” Ostrander from Spanaway, Washington, was caught by a riptide and dragged out to sea. As he was pulled underwater, his cries for help reached 12-year-old Nicole Kissel, who immediately sprang into action.
Kissel helped him onto her surfboard, lying on top of him as he urged her to “keep kicking.” While Kissel made it to shore, Ostrander was pulled under again, this time for 20 to 25 minutes. Kissel, devastated, declared, “He’s dead.”
Against all odds, rescuers managed to pull him from the water. Although he wasn’t breathing, CPR was performed as soon as he reached the beach. At the hospital, his pulse returned, and he was placed in a medically induced coma. When doctors later reduced his sedatives and called his name, Ostrander opened his eyes and blinked, showing signs of life.
Over the following days, Ostrander showed steady improvement, answering yes-or-no questions and even speaking in full sentences. However, doctors warned his parents that he would need extensive physical therapy and might face “permanent brain damage.”
“He had been . . . without oxygen for too long,” said his mother, Kirsten Ostrander. She and her husband, Chad, have accepted whatever fate may come for their son, trusting that it is God’s will, she added.
4. Kayaker
While kayaking on the Jones Falls River in Baltimore on an October afternoon in 2016, a kayaker was swept over the falls. A witness reported, “He got caught in the wash; it pushed him under, and he got separated from his boat.”
His companions threw ropes to him, but he disappeared beneath the water, where he “spent several minutes” before the police managed to pull him from the river. Unconscious, he was rushed to University of Maryland Shock Trauma, where he was listed in “critical condition.”
3. Ron Hacker And An ‘Unidentified Man’
While mowing his lawn in 2007, 68-year-old Ron Hacker from Leavittsburg, Ohio, fell down a .61-meter (2 ft) embankment into the Mahoning River. His riding mower became trapped “in waist-deep water.” Although he managed to keep his head above the water, he couldn’t free himself.
“A neighbor heard the splash” and called for Michael Oberlin, who was “installing satellite TV service” nearby. The two men rushed to Hacker’s side and managed to pull him out from under the mower. Although Hacker “suffered a few bumps on his head, some bruises, and a bloody nose,” he was otherwise unharmed.
Oberlin connected a chain to the submerged mower and used a truck to pull it to safety. When Hacker mows the bank again, he joked, he might “use a push mower.”
Remarkably, a similar incident took place in 2016 in East Lake, Florida, when an unidentified man “ended up pinned underwater by a riding lawn mower.” Witnesses explained that he had been mowing grass “parallel to the lake when he fell into the water.” Bystanders “spent several minutes” trying to rescue the man before they called for help.
When local firefighters arrived, they could find “no sign of the man or the mower” until they noticed oil floating on the lake's surface. A firefighter equipped with a rapid diver system entered the water and discovered the man four minutes later.
“He was in full cardiac arrest when pulled from the water,” and had no pulse. He was transported to the Medical Center of Trinity, with his condition unknown to the media at the time of the incident’s report.
2. Lake Barrington Man
During the summer of 2016, a 73-year-old man from Lake Barrington “lost his balance” while boating and plunged into Illinois’ Lake Barrington. Fire department personnel “launched a boat” and managed to retrieve him after he had been underwater for 10 minutes. He hadn’t been wearing a flotation device and was unable to stay afloat.
He was transported to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital near Barrington and was listed in “critical condition.”
1. Van Driver
A 20-year-old man became trapped underwater when his van was “stranded in heavy flooding” in San Diego’s Midway District. The flood occurred after a water pipe broke near Pacific Highway and Witherby Street around 9:40 PM.
Due to the immense water pressure around his van, the driver couldn’t open any doors or “roll down his electric windows.” Two police officers managed to break a window and “pulled the driver to safety.”
