Travolta - did he ever ditch an aircraft?

Hi all,

I had once heard that John Travolta once ditched an aircraft. I have never heard this, but to settle a "discussion" could someone tell me if he did in fact successfully ditch an aircraft ever in his years of flying?

Supposedly, he was all alone when this occurred.

Your help is appreciated!

-- Jim

PS - reply to (remove -No_spa*M and ^ )

Ditch?
Well, I know that he had some sort of total electrical failure in his 707 while flying over DC area. And he landed safety without radio and transponsder.
Toks

I think that was in his Gulfstream if I'm not mistaken.

Hank

In a previous article, (HankPilot2002) said:
I think that was in his Gulfstream if I'm not mistaken.

You're not mistaken. And from what I've heard, his handling of the
situation is taught at Flight Safety as "What NOT to do".


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
You cannot run Windows innocently. Guilt of aiding & abetting, at
the very least, is automatic.
-- David P. Murphy

On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 02:20:53 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:

In a previous article, (HankPilot2002) said:
I think that was in his Gulfstream if I'm not mistaken.

You're not mistaken. And from what I've heard, his handling of the
situation is taught at Flight Safety as "What NOT to do".


Hey Paul, give us some details. You have my curiosity up now...

Scott

In a previous article, SD sdatverizondot.net@ said:
On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 02:20:53 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:
In a previous article, (HankPilot2002) said:
I think that was in his Gulfstream if I'm not mistaken.

You're not mistaken. And from what I've heard, his handling of the
situation is taught at Flight Safety as "What NOT to do".
Hey Paul, give us some details. You have my curiosity up now...

I've seen him on TV bragging about how after the electrics went out, he
flew out to sea and spiraled down through clouds until he broke out over
the water and then scud-ran into a very busy coastal airport (JFK or
Boston, I think) and landed NORDO.

This is only rumour, and I've never been able to find confirmation, but
what I've heard is that he DIDN'T follow the emergency checklist, and he
DIDN'T reset the breakers and he DIDN'T switch to auxilliary power (I
don't know enough about Gulfstream systems to know if that's a manual
process). Obviously he DIDN'T follow proper lost-comm IFR procedures.
Rumour has it that Flight Safety gives Gulfstream pilots that scenerio in
the simulator and if they do what Travolta did, they fail.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Ayn Rand's writings never make perfect sense. She never realized that
people will choose short-term profits which require long-term payments.
-- David P. Murphy

Paul,


In a previous article, (HankPilot2002) said:
I think that was in his Gulfstream if I'm not mistaken.

You're not mistaken. And from what I've heard, his handling of the
situation is taught at Flight Safety as "What NOT to do".

You might check your source. Word is that he did an excellent job
with a total electrical failure, at night, in IMC and arrived safely.
He's got a reputation as a very good stick. After all, any filmstar
who promptly goes out and buys a DC-3 when he starts making good money
is the sort of person who is a good reflection on general aviation.

We can certainly use all of the folks like Travolta that our little
industry can get. He's certainly gotten a lot of good press and
attention for general aviation.

All the best,
Rick

Except when he buzzed his island cottage up here in Maine at 500 feet in his
707

We'll they never did prove it was him. Maybe the other guy with a private
707 did it just to show him up.

--
Roger Long

"Rick Durden" wrote in message
m...
[...]
We can certainly use all of the folks like Travolta that our little
industry can get. He's certainly gotten a lot of good press and
attention for general aviation.

Such as?

As near as I can tell, the handful of "famous pilots" who might have gotten
more involved with aviation and done things to foster the industry have not
bothered. People aren't going around saying "hey, did you see that
interview with Travolta? I guess we don't really need all these silly
restrictions on general aviation after all", or "hey, did you see that
interview with Harrison? Turns out you DON'T need to be a rich actor to
learn to fly".

What little press people like that have received, all they've done is
reinforced the idea that flying is for rich folks who can afford the fancy
toys, and that when you restrict aviation, you're not really hurting anyone
who can't afford to be hurt a bit.

These are people who, if they cared to, could use their substantial media
presence to fight on behalf of general aviation. I've seen absolutely no
evidence that suggests they've ever bothered to try.

Pete

We can certainly use all of the folks like Travolta that our little
industry can get. He's certainly gotten a lot of good press and
attention for general aviation.

All the best,
Rick

Harrison Ford is another prominent example who comes to mind. He has
a reputation as a straight shooter, no nonsense pilot who flies within
his skillset and not his wallet. Yeah, he owns a G4 (and a Bonanza,
and a twin and a helicopter), but he flies in back with the family.