Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock has previously admitted that she is “deathly afraid” of flying after a traumatic incident.
Back in December 2000, the Miss Congeniality actress was inside “a twin engine Hawker corporate jet that skidded off the runway”, according to The Guardian.
She was arriving in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the Christmas holidays with her partner at the time Bob Schneider. The pair were inside the aircraft along with two crew members and thankfully no-one was hurt during the terrifying ordeal.
The BBC reported: “The aircraft pilot attempted to land between a runway and taxiway at the airport, situated in the north west of the state. However, the harsh, icy weather – which included a high cross wind – would have made landing more difficult than usual, added the officials.”
The Guardian reported: “It is believed that the pilot may have been so confused by the hazardous conditions that he mistook a set of ground lights for the lights that mark the centre of the runway.” Airport manager George Larson said that the plane was severely damaged as the nose landing gear was smashed, along with damage to both of the wings.
Just two years before the crash, Sandra starred in Forces of Nature with Ben Affleck. The rom-com follows two strangers who meet when their plane to Savannah crashes after a seagull flies into one of the engines.
13 years after Sandra’s crash she starred in Gravity, a sci-fi thriller about two astronauts who try to make their way back to earth after their space shuttle was destroyed in orbit. She was initially ready to turn down the role as she was afraid of training in the “vomit comet,” which is a zero-gravity aircraft that plunges down to simulate weightlessness.
Sandra said: “I appreciate not being in my comfort zone because that means I’ve gotten as far away as possible. It unlocks things that scare you, frustrate you, but it also forces you to dig very deep. This scared me on every single level, primarily because originally it was supposed to be shot in the ‘Vomit Comet’. I’m deathly afraid of flying. It’s one of my greatest fears. I thought it was just time to get over that fear. The whole film is an experiment in what you have that you don’t know you have.”
However, the team decided against using the machine and against shooting the film in zero-gravity altogether. Tim Webber, who worked on Gravity’s visual effects, said in 2013: “Sandra Bullock had been in, I think, two plane crashes, so getting her to go up into an aeroplane that dives thousands of feet every so often would have been a big ask.”
“Apollo 13 was filmed in a vomit comet, but they had the advantage of wanting a shot that lasted four or five seconds. Alfonso [Cuaron, director] loves the long shot and you get only get 15 seconds or so of weightlessness in the vomit comet, so it didn’t really work out.”
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