Jennifer Aniston Reveals Ellen DeGeneres Was the First Person to Text During Plane Scare
In times of trouble, Jennifer Aniston knows she has at least one good friend looking out for her.
The Murder Mystery actress went on pal Ellen DeGeneres‘s talk show on Wednesday where she gave more detail about the scary plane incident she experienced with friends while celebrating her 50th birthday in February. Aniston was on a private jet heading to Mexico with buds like Courteney Cox and Molly McNearney (Jimmy Kimmel‘s wife) when they were forced to turn around due to problems with the plane’s landing gear.
Aniston, who has a fear of flying, originally didn’t see why missing a wheel was such a problem. Then she saw how her friends were reacting.
“Everybody on the plane started panicking,” Aniston recalled to DeGeneres. “Everyone who I look to for comfort has got tears streaming down their faces. They’re texting their children, their partners, their loved ones. And I was like, ‘Who do I text? And then ‘Bing!’ You were the first person that was like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I was like, ‘Ellen! I do have someone who loves me!’ “
DeGeneres explained, “I heard from someone Jen’s plane is in trouble, they had an emergency landing. So I texted you right away.”
“But I couldn’t believe how calm I became and everyone else wasn’t,” Aniston continued. “We had to fly around for like 6 hours to dump the fuel, which still wasn’t occurring to me this might be because if we land badly, it will explode.”
In the end, Aniston and her group of friends boarded a plane the next day and still made it to Mexico for the weekend, which shocked some people.
“Everyone was like, ‘How could you get on another plane?’ I was like, ‘Listen, we all had to fly around for 6 hours dumping fuel, we all got pretty hammered ‘cause who knew what the end of this was gonna be. Let’s go out with some tequila.’ “
The plane eventually made a safe landing back in Ontario, California and the group caught another plane to Cabo San Lucas the next day. A statement released by the airport revealed there were problems with the plane’s landing gear.
“A Gulfstream aircraft with 10 passengers and two flight crew members on board landed without incident at Ontario International Airport (ONT) after experiencing landing gear difficulty,” the statement read.
RELATED: Brad Pitt Sent Jennifer Aniston a Gift Before Her 50th Birthday Party: Source
The news came almost a week after the Friends actress celebrated her birthday with pals, including Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, George and Amal Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Downey Jr., Ellen DeGeneres, Barbra Streisand, Keith Richards, Laura Dern, Demi Moore and Lisa Kudrow— as well as Aniston’s ex-husband Brad Pitt.
“Basically, every single person who Jen loves attended. That included Brad,” a source told PEOPLE of the star-studded bash, which included multiple pairs of exes. “The party was a celebration of Jen’s life.”
Murder Mystery, costarring Adam Sandler, starts streaming on Netflix June 12.
