Sir Elton John's private jet was involved in a near-miss incident at Farnborough Airport late last month, when a hawk dived at the aircraft during take-off. The 78-year-old singer was aboard the Boeing 737 with his family when pilot Duncan Gillespie was forced to make an unusual manoeuvre to avoid a collision.
Gillespie, who has flown Elton John for many years, recounted the incident on Facebook. He explained that the plane had reached V1 speed—160mph, the point at which a take-off cannot normally be aborted—when he spotted a large bird of prey diving towards the left engine. Believing the bird was protecting its mate, Gillespie made the split-second decision to delay rotation and pass under the hawk.
“For the first time in my flying career, I made the decision to delay getting airborne to pass under the bird,” Gillespie wrote. “My colleague and I were both of the clear opinion that if we’d have rotated when we should have, we’d have taken the hawk through the left-hand engine.” He described the move as “unorthodox” but necessary to avoid a major incident, adding that it saved millions of dollars in potential damages.
This is not the first aviation scare for the Rocket Man star. In 2022, his private jet suffered a hydraulic failure at 10,000 feet, forcing an emergency landing. The aircraft had to abort two landing attempts due to strong winds before successfully touching down on the third try.
