Actor John Travolta has shared details of an experience he had with a “total electrical failure” on a plane.
The 69-year-old, who had been piloting the jet at the time, recounted the event at a screening of his upcoming short film, The Shepherd, which will be released on Disney+.
The movie – which is an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s 1975 novel – involves a young fighter pilot who finds himself in danger when his plane undergoes multiple system failures.
Travolta shared that when he discovered and read the book, it was just after his own frightening aviation incident.
According to the BBC, the actor said: “The kismet of the project is, I actually experienced a total electrical failure, not in a Vampire [jet] but a corporate jet, over Washington DC, prior to my discovering the book.”
He continued: “So when I read the book, it resonated more because of this experience I’d personally had.”
“I knew what it felt like to absolutely think you’re going to die. Because I had two good jet engines but I had no instruments, no electric, nothing,” the Grease star shared.
Referring to the performance by his co-star, Ben Radcliffe, he said, “I thought it was over, just like this boy, portrayed so beautifully [by Radcliffe]. He captured that despair when you think you’re actually going to die.”
The Pulp Fiction actor also shared: “I had my family on board and I said, ‘This is it, I can’t believe I’m going to die in this plane’ and then, as if by a miracle, we descended to a lower altitude, I saw the Washington DC Monument and identified that Washington National Airport was right next to it and I made a landing just like [character Freddie] does in the film. So I’m reading this book saying, I’ve lived this.”
Travolta gained his pilot license when he was 22-years-old, and shared how he had “just purchased a Vampire jet just like the one in the film” when he came across the story.
He said: “I instantly fell in love with this book. And it was my dream to one day make it into a film. So a couple of years later I purchased the rights to this book, but because it was right after Pulp Fiction, I was doing one movie after another.
“So after 10 years, I let it go and decided I was never going to get to do it. Then this hero [director Iain Softley] came along who had also fallen in love with it, and brought me back into the group.”
The Shepherd will be available to stream on Disney+ from 1 December.
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