John Travolta Opens Up About Near-Death Experience While Flying His Family On Plane

November 26, 2023
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John Travolta is opening up about the wild moment he thought he was “going to die.”

While attending the London premiere for the Disney+ short, “The Shepherd,” the actor told the audience that he could relate to the film, which follows a young pilot who suffers electrical issues onboard, because of the near-death experience he had while soaring the skies.

Travolta, 69, who is a licensed pilot, said the mishap happened after he “experienced a total electrical failure” while onboard with his family.

“I actually experienced a total electrical failure, not in a Vampire, but in a corporate jet over Washington, D.C.,” Travolta told Variety. “So when I read [Frederick Forsyth’s book of the same name], it resonated even more because of this experience I had personally had.”

He went on to recall: “I knew what it felt like to absolutely think you’re going to die. I had two good jet engines, but I had no instruments, no electric, nothing. And I thought it was over.”

John Travolta said his scrape with death was somewhat of a “miracle.”
John Travolta said his scrape with death was somewhat of a “miracle.”

Amanda Edwards via Getty Images

Though Travolta didn’t specify when the incident took place, the longtime actor spoke about the startling incident nearly 30 years ago in a New Yorker feature.

Travolta told the outlet in 1995 that he was forced to make an emergency landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

“I had the equivalent of seven failures ― contagious failures,” Travolta said, explaining that his “transducer rectifier” wasn’t functioning.

The “Pulp Fiction” star added: “I claimed an Emergency over the radio. And then everything went. I had one gyro. No flaps. No reverse thrust. When I fly, I find great objectivity up there. And I found I was calm. In flying school, they give you what they call a black cockpit. So I felt I’d been there before.”

The actor was flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Rockland, Maine, to celebrate his 7-month-old son’s first Thanksgiving at their island vacation home, according to The Washington Post.

During his appearance in London this week, Travolta said his scrape with death was somewhat of a “miracle.”

“And then as if by a miracle, we descended as per the rules to a lower altitude,” Travola recalled. “I saw that Washington, D.C., monument and identified that Washington National Airport was right next to it, and I made a landing just like [pilot Freddie Hooke] does in the film.”

Adapted from a novella by Frederick Forsyth, “The Shepherd” stars Travolta, Ben Radcliffe, Steven Mackintosh and Millie Kent. The short film hits Disney+ Dec. 1.

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