The moment Clint Eastwood almost died in a plane crash
The filmic achievements of Clint Eastwood reach far and wide and have cemented him perhaps as American cinema’s most enduring icon. With a remarkable career spanning more than six glittering decades, Eastwood’s impact on Hollywood is beyond significance, simply becoming a crucial part of its history.
Not only has Eastwood given some of the most outstanding acting performances in the likes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Dirty Harry, but he has achieved a celebrated status as a director too, handling many excellent works of film, including Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, to name but a few.
However, the world might never have seen an Eastwood production as the actor and director very nearly lost his life in a plane crash. After finishing high school as per the wishes of his father, Eastwood had planned to study music at university but was suddenly drafted into the United States Army at the beginning of the Korean War in 1950.
Eastwood never actually saw any warfare, but it was that same year that he nearly lost his life anyway. Having met a young woman in Seattle, where his parents had moved to, Eastwood decided to take a trip back to visit her and caught a ride with a naval plane that was heading north.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Eastwood explained the journey that very nearly claimed his life. “It was a naval torpedo bomber – there were no seats – and I had to squeeze into the radar compartment on the plane,” he said. The plane had not been intended to ferry human beings, and suddenly, thousands of feet in the air, the door to the plane flew open.
After reaching for the radio to inform the pilot, Eastwood was dismayed to find it out of order, and he began to hold on with all his might so as not to be sent hurtling to the floor. “I nearly fell out,” he said. “I was a mile up holding on for dear life.” Thankfully, the future actor managed to wedge the door short but then had to contend with a lack of oxygen as the plane climbed higher and higher.
If all that wasn’t bad enough, things made an unbelievable turn for the worse. After passing out from a lack of oxygen, Eastwood came to only to find that the pilot was about to crash-land into the sea, having run out of fuel. He was thrown out of the plane and had to swim against a strong current to make it back to dry land.
“I don’t recall how long it took to get out, but as I’ve said, it was an ordeal I never want to repeat,” he remembered. “I collapsed on the beach.” And why did Eastwood go through this ordeal? Vying for the affection of a young woman, of course. “I think I became hooked on girls at a fairly early age,” he admitted with a smile, knowing that his romantic interest very nearly saw his early demise.
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