Donnie Wahlberg praises God and pilots after plane skids off runway in Las Vegas

Donnie Wahlberg is thanking God and his “incredible pilots” after a private plane he was on narrowly avoided disaster in Las Vegas.

Wahlberg, 57, was flying back to Toronto from Harry Reid International Airport when the aircraft he was travelling aboard skidded off the runway over the weekend.

“We’re all OK, I’m OK … We were taking off and didn’t get up in the air and ran out of runway. I’m just going to tell you these pilots saved our lives. And God covered us… We just finished praying, and I looked out the window and said, we are not getting up in the air today. But we’re safe and thankful and all is well,” Wahlberg said in a video shared to his Instagram.

PEOPLE confirmed Wahlberg’s incident with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), who said the plane was a Dassault Falcon 50 bound for Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

“I’m not sure how many fences we avoided but we didn’t avoid the last one,” Wahlberg said in his video, adding that they were lucky they didn’t hit the heavy equipment behind it.

Wahlberg said that he and his team were “safe, and thankful.”

“All is well, okay? Don’t worry. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus,” he said.

‘So many of you all are my family’

In the caption of Wahlberg’s post, the Boston Blue star said he initially sent the video to just his family and friends to let them know he was safe. But he decided to post his message publicly because “so many of you all are my family too.”

“It was me and my team/friends onboard the aircraft. It was a rather intense few moments,” he wrote. “Thankful to God, of course, and to our incredible pilots who did an amazing job of keeping us safe and avoiding a serious disaster. The airplane did take some lumps — but we did not.”

Wahlberg described the incident as “a rather intense few moments (which felt like a few long minutes).”

He also thanked “all the emergency personnel on the ground in Las Vegas” calling them “absolutely wonderful.”

In an audio recording that circulated on TikTok, a voice was heard saying, “Aborting. Aborting,” before air traffic control confirmed emergency vehicles were en route.

Wahlberg’s wife, Jenny McCarthy, reacted to the scary episode by posting in his comments, “God is so good!”

Harry Reid International Airport confirmed there were no injuries and that the plane skidded off the runway in a statement shared on social media. “At approximately 11 a.m., upon departure, a general aviation aircraft skid off runway 1L at LAS and made contact with the perimeter fence,” a spokesperson wrote.

The airport posted an update later that day confirming that both runways had reopened shortly after Wahlberg’s accident.

Before taking off, Wahlberg posted a photo of himself on the plane to his Instagram Stories, PEOPLE reported.

Sitting in his seat and smiling, the singer and actor captioned his snap, “His love is eternal.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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