John Travolta Details Near-Death Aviation Nightmare: ‘Total Electric Failure’

John Travolta was in London on Thursday, presenting his new short film The Shepherd, which will debut on Disney + on Dec. 1. The picture, in which he co-stars and serves as executive producer, stars Ben Radcliffe, is directed by Ian Softley (The Wings of the Dove, Inkheart) and is based on a Frederick Forsyth novella published in 1975.

But the story — about a pilot facing doom when his craft's systems go down — hits close to home for the Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction star.

As the BBC reported, the actor-aviator told an invited audience that shortly before he ever encountered the book in the mid-1990s, he had a similar near-death experience.

"The kismet of the project is, I actually experienced a total electrical failure, not in a [British warplane] but a corporate jet, over Washington DC," he said.

The incident occurred in November 1992, when he was flying a small group of people from Florida to Maine. The actor, now 69, has been a licensed pilot since he was 22.

"[W]hen I read the book, it resonated more because of this experience I'd personally had," he continued. "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."

Travolta praised his co-star, Anatomy of a Scandal's Radcliffe, saying he "captured that despair when you think you're actually going to die."

The actor went on to say that during his 1992 incident he "had my family on board and I said, 'This is it, I can't believe I'm going to die in this plane.'"

Of course, fate proved otherwise when he descended his craft, eyeballed the Washington Monument and was able to make his way to Washington National Airport.

He said that when he read the book he felt "I lived this."

In The Shepherd, set on Christmas Eve, Travolta plays an older pilot who helps guide the younger one in the 38-minute World War II-set story.

This being a Disney + release suggests that it won't be too intense, and probably good to watch with the whole family. But if you really want to terrify the kids off air travel, be sure to show them 1993's double feature of Peter Weir's Fearless and Frank Marshall's Alive. Some of us tried to keep it to trains and automobiles for a decade after those two.