The Rocketman had a harrowing ordeal on board his private jet while flying to a show in New York on Monday.
Sir Elton John’s plane suffered a hydraulic failure at 10,000 feet above the coast of Ireland, heading towards an Atlantic Ocean crossing, according to the British paper The Sun.
At the same time, huge storm winds were battering the British isles — making the landing a “terrifying” and “nail-biting drama.”
Onlookers reported that the plane twice attempted, and aborted, emergency landings in the high winds before successfully touching down on the pilot’s third try.
“The terrible weather and epic gusts made it almost impossible to land. Two attempts to touch down failed,” a witness told The Sun. “The plane was being buffeted and couldn’t make it. The aircraft’s nose was far too vertical. The plane was descending and was halfway along the runway when it gave up trying to hit the tarmac. It soared back in the air.”
“A crowd had gathered after word went around that Elton was in difficulty. And as the plane came around again for a second attempt to land, the storm was doing its worst,” The Sun reported the eyewitness said. “The airport’s windsock was horizontal and the aircraft was being rocked from side to side by the wind.”
“The pilot made a valiant attempt to get down with the jet ‘crabbing’ into the storm. But it didn’t make it and had to head back upwards,” the witness said. “It was only at the third attempt to land that the plane got down. The pilot made a flatter approach and the wind had dropped slightly. Everyone watching was mightily relieved.”
John recently resumed his farewell tour after the singer recovered from COVID-19 in late January and had to postpone two concert dates in Dallas.
John, who is vaccinated and boosted, experienced “only mild symptoms,” according to a press statement at the time. “Elton and the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour look forward to returning to the stage shortly.”
His rescheduled 2020 North American tour kicked off on Jan. 19 in New Orleans and is scheduled to make stops in Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Miami — and New York and New Jersey this week.
John previously said he was postponing European dates on his world tour until 2023 so that he can have an operation on an injured hip.
The Horn editorial team