Leonardo DiCaprio Survives Doomed Flight With a Bunch of Drunk Russians
Leonardo DiCaprio was one of 193 drunken, terrified passengers stuck circling JFK after a Moscow-bound flight blew an engine during takeoff. He signed autographs after the emergency landing. Luckily for him, the passengers weren't all Titanic fans.
DiCaprio was en route to Russian Prime Minster Vladimir Putin's tiger extinction conference in St. Petersburg when passengers and crew aboard the Delta Boeing 767 felt the engine blow. The plane was 400 feet in the air when they heard a "bang," and a number of people who witnessed the incident from the ground quickly dialed 911, fearing the plane was on fire. It wasn't. But the plane ended up circling the airport for more than hour while it dumped fuel and prepared to make an emergency landing.
"The captain said there was a little problem. He said, 'Don't worry if you see fuel in the window," one passenger explained. Then the lights turned off and people understandably began shrieking. Then, even more understandably, everyone got very drunk. "Everybody went to drink something," said passenger Elena Shalnova.
It is unclear whether or not DiCaprio, who later said he "wishes to commend the actions of the pilot and flight crew in bringing the plane to a safe landing," was one of those drunk, shrieking people. Either way, he'll probably tell Putin he wasn't, well aware that if Putin had been on board, he would have safely landed the plane without a shirt on while simultaneously delivering a baby, or something. [NYDN, THR; photo via Getty]