Brendan Fevola has recalled the harrowing moment he text his family to say ‘goodbye’ during a shocking mid-air emergency on a flight.
The Melbourne-based radio star, 43, detailed the terrifying incident from his recent flight to Sydney, where his plane appeared to have an issue during landing.
Recounting the heartwrenching scare on The Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Nick show on Wednesday, Brendan confessed he thought he was ‘going to die’.
He revealed he messaged his four daughters – Mia, 24, Leni, 17, Lulu, 14, and Tobi, six, who he shares with Alex Cheatham – a heartfelt message as he feared the worst.
‘I’ve gone, ”I think I’m going to die”,’ I actually sent a message out to the kids, literally messaged them, just in case,’ he told listeners.
The former AFL star said he became concerned after a first attempt at grounding the aircraft was suddenly aborted.
Brendan Fevola has recalled the harrowing moment he text his family to say ‘goodbye’ during a shocking mid-air emergency on a flight
‘All of a sudden, the plane went back up again and started shaking,’ he explained.
‘I was like, ”argh”… it goes back up and it hovered, I reckon we were pretty close to land; we were like hovering for a bit, and then the engine turned off.’
Brendan said there was one particularly terrifying moment during the landing when he thought the plane ‘stopped going’.
‘I looked at the lady next to me, I was like ”What’s happening?” We went back up, we went down again, and we did it again,’ he added.
‘I said to my kids, ”I’m on the plane. We’ve tried to land twice and gone back up again. I’m a little bit scared. Just a message to say I love you all”, with love hearts.’
The former Carlton Football Club champion admitted he was drinking wine during the mid-air crisis.
‘This is probably the grimmest bit of it all because I was having a beautiful Pinot Noir, but as you go down, you can’t have the glass in your hand, so I was drinking out of a paper cup,’ he joked.
‘I was thinking, ”I’m going to die drinking red wine out of a paper cup”… Do I scull it now or do I wait till we impact and drink it?”
Recounting the scare, he said he messaged his four daughters – Mia, 24, Leni, 17, Lulu, 14, and Tobi, six, who he shares with Alex Cheatham – a heartfelt message as he feared the worst
‘This was what was going through my head. Anyway, then we landed.’
Brendan said the pilot later told passengers that the landing problem arose because it was coming ‘too fast’ for the prevailing tailwinds.
Brendan married make-up artist Alex in 2005 and they welcomed three children together, while Brendan also adopted Alex’s child Mia from a previous relationship.
The couple divorced in 2014, but their separation was short-lived, as they reunited later that same year, before getting engaged again in 2016.
Brendan popped the question to Alex for the second time in front of their children after he was crowned the winner of the 2016 season of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Australia.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk