John Travolta has been an accomplished airplane pilot for decades, and the Pulp Fiction star just upped his credentials.
“So a very proud moment in my aviation history,” Travolta said in a 15-second clip posted to Instagram on Sunday. “To add to my 747 and 707 licenses, I just received my 737 license, and it went very well, so just sharing my moment with you.”
Tragically, a Boeing 737 is the type of plane that crashed in China on Monday, just hours after Travolta shared his post. The New York Times reported, “it was unclear if any of the 132 crew and passengers survived the Boeing 737-800 crash.”
In his video, the Oscar-nominated actor was smiling as he stood alongside a plane on a tarmac.
Celebrity friends including Tommy Lee, Naomi Campbell and Donnie Wahlberg were among those who cheered him on. “Ata boy captain,” Lee wrote. The New Kids on the Block signer added that Travolta’s news was “so very cool.”
Travolta, now 68, was just 15 when he first took a flying lesson, according to CBS News. He earned his first license to pilot a plane in 1978, when he was in his 20s, the same year his hit Grease arrived in theaters. He’s since owned multiple airplanes.
“Aviation has always bailed me out of anything in my mind that is blue,” Travolta said then. “I can look through an airline schedule and brochure and cheer up.”
An ambassador to Qantas Airlines since 2002, Travolta also regularly notes National Aviation Day.
In November 2019, he gave followers a look at his son, Ben, who’s now 11, sharing his dad’s love of flying. “My son Ben is taking my place,” Travolta captioned a photo of him in the cockpit (he’s the one on the right). “His first A380 @Qantas flight.”
In addition to Ben, Travolta is the father of daughter, Ella, who’s 21. The mother of both his children is late actress Kelly Preston, who died in July 2020 following a breast cancer diagnosis. The couple also had a son Jett, who died when he was 16, after having a seizure on a family vacation in 2008.
