Actress Sandra Bullock has previously admitted she is "deathly afraid" of flying after a traumatic incident in December 2000. The Miss Congeniality star was aboard a twin-engine Hawker corporate jet that skidded off the runway at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, according to The Guardian. She was traveling with her then-partner Bob Schneider and two crew members for the Christmas holidays. No one was hurt.
The BBC reported that the pilot attempted to land between a runway and taxiway at the airport. Officials added that harsh, icy weather with high crosswinds made landing more difficult than usual.
Details of the Crash
It is believed the pilot may have been confused by hazardous conditions and mistook ground lights for the runway center lights, per The Guardian. Airport manager George Larson said the plane was severely damaged, with the nose landing gear smashed and both wings damaged.
Two years before the crash, Bullock starred in Forces of Nature with Ben Affleck, a rom-com where a plane crash is caused by a seagull flying into an engine.
Gravity and Overcoming Fear
Thirteen years after her crash, Bullock starred in Gravity, a sci-fi thriller about astronauts returning to Earth after their shuttle is destroyed. She initially considered turning down the role due to fear of training in the "vomit comet," a zero-gravity aircraft.
Bullock 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 team ultimately decided against using the vomit comet or shooting in zero-gravity. Tim Webber, visual effects supervisor for Gravity, 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." He added that Apollo 13 used the vomit comet but for short shots, while director Alfonso Cuarón favored long takes that required more than the 15 seconds of weightlessness the aircraft could provide.
