John Travolta Recalls Near-Death Experience When a Plane He Was Piloting Suffered Electrical Failure

John Travolta is the star and executive producer of a new short film for Disney Plus called The Shepherd, about a young Royal Air Force pilot flying home on Christmas Eve when his radio and electric power cuts out, leaving him running out of fuel. But as the 69-year-old actor explained during a recent screening of the film, he was inspired to make the film nearly 30 years ago after he had a similarly scary experience.

A licensed pilot who owns several aircraft, Travolta had been piloting his Gulfstream N728T back in 1992 when he experienced a total electrical system failure while flying into Washington National Airport. There were six passengers on board at the time, including his wife Kelly Preston and the couple's seven-month-old son Jett.

He was able to successfully make an emergency landing, but not before nearly colliding in mid-air with a USAir Boeing 727. A few years after the incident, he discovered British author Frederick Forsyth's 1975 novella that The Shepherd is based on.

"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 journalists following the screening, according to the BBC.

"So when I read the book, it resonated more because of this experience I'd personally had," he explained. "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."

In the story, the pilot—portrayed by British actor Ben Radcliffe in the film—gets help from a mysterious stranger, played by Travolta.

"And 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," he continued. "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 D.C. 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," Travolta recalled. "So I'm reading this book saying, I've lived this."

He said that he had come across the novella at a book store while shooting a film in Canada, and was initially drawn to the Vampire jet on the cover after just having purchased one himself. "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."

Although at the time, Travolta envisioned himself playing the pilot, he joked that he "had to wait 30 years to play the shepherd."

"So after 10 years, I let it go and decided I was never going to get to do it," he added. "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 streams on Disney Plus starting Dec. 1. You can watch the trailer below.