Donnie Wahlberg, the actor and New Kids On The Block singer, is thanking pilots for "avoiding a serious disaster" after the plane he was on skidded off the runway and hit a fence at a Las Vegas airport Sunday.
"We're all OK, I'm OK," Wahlberg said in a social media video posted from the airport. "We were taking off and didn't get up in the air and ran out of runway."
Eight people were on board the mid-size business jet that was headed to Toronto shortly before 11 a.m. when the pilot aborted takeoff, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Harry Reid International Airport said no one was injured when the plane hit a perimeter fence. The incident caused a ground stop at the airport while the runway was inspected.
"These pilots saved our lives and God covered us because I'm not sure how many fences we avoided but we didn't avoid the last one," Wahlberg said.
The Dorchester native said his team and friends were on board the flight. He said there were some "rather intense" moments but credits the pilots for avoiding trucks and heavy equipment nearby.
"We just finished praying and I looked out the window and said, 'we are not going up in the air today,'" he said. "The airplane did take some lumps - but we did not."
The FAA said the cause of the aborted takeoff is under investigation.
The Wahlburgers co-owner is currently starring in season two of "Boston Blue" on CBS.
"There are a lot of unknowns. This is pretty open-ended. All we know for sure is that the plane went off the runway at Las Vegas at a pretty high rate of speed," said Patrick Smith, a Boston-based commercial pilot and host of AskThePilot.com
Smith says his review of preliminary data shows the plane reached a speed of 130 mph before aborting takeoff.
"I have to wonder if maybe the decision to discontinue the takeoff was made after that point, which is not normal procedure. That's only done if something very serious or dire is happening," Smith explained. "Or was the plane's stopping performance somehow compromised by a malfunction of some kind? Those are probably two of the things that are going to be a part of this investigation that's ongoing."
However, an Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS), which may have prevented the plane from traveling so far on the ground, was not there, according to Smith.
"That may have prevented the plane from traveling as far as it did," he added.
EMAS platforms are made up of a crushable concrete-like material, aimed at helping stop planes that overshoot runways.
In July, WBZ got a behind-the-scenes look on the airfield at Boston Logan International Airport, where crews were installing a third platform, a safety measure pilots like Smith say you never hope to need but they certainly help.
"Especially on shorter runways where an aborted takeoff becomes a more precarious maneuver. It's good to have that little buffer at the end of the runway in case you do run out of room," Smith said.
The Logan runway where construction is ongoing has not been used during the process. Massport officials say the work will wrap up before Thanksgiving.
