Wahlberg looks pale and shaken in the video. He stands on the tarmac, surrounded by emergency vehicles. The 57-year-old singer and actor says the plane – a Toronto-bound Dassault Falcon 50 – went off the runway, but managed to avoid crashing into fences, trucks, heavy equipment and dumpsters.
“It was me and my team/friends on the plane. Those were some pretty intense moments,” Wahlberg wrote on Instagram. “Thanks to God, of course, and to our incredible pilots who did an incredible job to keep us safe and avoid a serious catastrophe. The plane took a few pieces, but we didn’t.”
People reported that the plane had eight people on board. In an air traffic control recording of the incident posted on TikTok, a voice, presumably the pilot’s, can be heard saying “Give up! Give up!” The Las Vegas Airport posted a message about the incident on X: “There are no known injuries at this time. Runways 1R and 1L will be closed for inspection and travelers may experience delays.”
Wahlberg was in Sin City for a performance with his band, New Kids on the Block, which just completed a residency at Vegas’ Dolby Park at Park MGM.
Donnie Wahlberg isn’t the only member of his famous family to almost die on a plane. On September 11, 2001, his younger brother, Mark, was booked to fly on American Airlines Flight 11 – the first of two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center – but the actor changed his flight to go to the Toronto International Film Festival.
In a 2012 interview with Men’s Journal, “The Departed” actor upset many people when he said he would have stopped the hijackers: “If I had been on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have crashed like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first class cabin and then I would be like, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safe, don’t worry.’
Mark Wahlberg later apologized for the comments.
“Speculating about such a situation is ridiculous to begin with, and to suggest that I would have acted differently from the passengers on that plane was irresponsible,” Wahlberg said in a statement. “I deeply apologize to the victims’ families that my response seemed insensitive; that was certainly not my intention.”
Mark Shanahan can be contacted at mark.shanahan@globe.com.
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