THIS is the horrifying moment a 15ft great white shark cut off four divers’ air supply before getting stuck INSIDE their cage.
Astonishing footage showed the huge beast charge towards them jaws-first as they dived off the coast of Mexico.
The terrifying encounter happened as they dived off a remote Mexican island 160 miles west of the Baja California port of EnsenadaCredit: Graig Capehart
The huge shark smashed into the steel cageCredit: Graig Capehart
The giant beast chewed the four divers’ air supply hoseCredit: Graig Capehart
It smashed through the cage, trapping itself on top of the divers.
The great white chewed through the swimmers’ air supply, leaving them gasping for air as it thrashed around.
Eventually they managed to escape just as the divers feared the worst.
Terrified Katie Yonker, who was inside the cage, described the horrifying moment the shark attacked them off off Guadalupe Island, Mexico.
She revealed another diver, called Yann, had shoved the beast away moments earlier.
Katie, operations director for Bluewater Dive Travel, said: “The first minute or so felt like a horrific earthquake underwater, and I kept thinking, ‘We just need to wait this out’,
“But in the back of my head I feared the cage would break apart and this would be the end for me.”
The Nautilus Explorer divers had entered a their open-topped cage with an upper viewing platform called a balcony, and were lowered into the waters to view sharks.
Air was supplied via a hose on the vessel with an emergency air supply valve was fixed inside the cage.
Katie was inside the cage with a diver master Yann, and passengers named David and Katie B.
A chum bag was attached to the cage to provide scent for nearby sharks.
The shark, measuring 13 to 15 feet, charged at Yann and Katie B., who were exposed on the balcony, reports grind.tv.
Yann pushed the shark away, and moments later the shark bit through the air hose, “creating an explosion of air bubbles.”
Then the shark entered the balcony area and swam vertically into the cage, becoming angry and stuck.
Yann managed to stay above the shark but the other three divers cowered beneath as it began to thrash in an attempt to free itself.
“We stood, gripping the cage in an attempt to stay upright, while the cage circled back and forth and at one point was at a 45-degree angle,” Yonker writes.
“Yann’s regulator had been knocked out of his mouth by the shark, so he retreated to the surface to catch a breath and to tell the crew to bring up the cage.”
After the cage was pulled near the surface they still had to work out how to get out with the shark still stuck inside.
The divers feared they were going to die after the shark smashed their way into the cageCredit: Graig Capehart
After the cage was pulled near the surface they still had to work out how to get out with the shark still stuck insideCredit: Graig Capehart
The shark eventually managed to find a way out of the cageCredit: Graig Capehart
Katie added: “It was nearly impossible to see anything because the shark was blocking much of the exit and visibility was limited by all the air bubbles and blood [from the chum bag] in the water…. I could see the boat, but had no idea how I would get around the shark.”
She eventually made it onto the boat and the and the crew freed the shark by tying rope to its tail.
Katie said: “To be clear, this was in no way a shark attack.
“It was a shark enticed by the scent of tuna, not humans. I suspect (and hope) that this incident prompts some changes in the operations, mainly to the design of the cages so that this cannot happen again.”
Last month we told how another great white shark defecated on a group of divers who were filming underwater in the same location.
However, it sounds like this time around it wasn’t the shark’s bowels that were in danger of letting go.
