John Travolta Recalled His Terrifying Near-Death Experience While Flying A Plane

John Travolta‘s latest project is directing a short film based on The Shepherd, author Frederick Forsyth’s 1975 novella about a pilot whose aircraft suffers electrical failure during a flight. The Grease star can relate: he also once had a near-fatal experience while flying a plane.

“The kismet of the project is, I actually experienced a total electrical failure, not in a Vampire but a corporate jet, over Washington DC, prior to my discovering the book,” Travolta told BBC about the 1992 incident during a recent screening of The Shepherd. “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. And I thought it was over.”

Travolta had his family on board and told them, “This is it, I can’t believe I’m going to die in this plane,” but “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. I’m reading this book saying, I’ve lived this.”

The Shepherd premieres on Disney+ on December 1st. You can watch the trailer below.