"Titanic" star Leonardo DiCaprio avoided a real life disaster Sunday, when his Moscow-bound flight blew an engine and had to return to New York's JFK Airport.
The 36-year-old star was aboard a commercial Delta flight bound for Russia when one of its engines shut down, his rep said. Sources said the pilot skillfully landed the plane and a grateful DiCaprio signed autographs for the entire crew.
"En route to attend the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the passengers aboard Delta Flight 30,β a statement from DiCaprio's rep said. βHe wishes to commend the actions of the pilot and flight crew in bringing the plane to a safe landing.β
The jet circled the airport for 90 minutes and dump about 60,000 pounds of fuel Sunday evening before landing on the runway, where a crew of 160 firefighters was on emergency standby.
The Tiger Summit is a four-day meeting on how to help tigers avoid extinction. The summit, oddly, was called by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who shot a Siberian tiger two years ago with a tranquilizer gun.
DiCaprio is a supporter of the World Wildlife Fund's Save Tigers Now campaign, which is trying to raise $20 million to double the species' numbers by 2022.
Selected Reading: Us Magazine, The New York Times, IMDb.