Clint Eastwood's near escape

Dec 17, 2006, 12:00 GMT

Clint Eastwood at the Japan premier press conference of the movie Letters From Iwo Jima in Tokyo, Thursday 16 November, 2006. The Clint Eastwood directed movie opens in Japanese cinemas Saturday 09 December 2006. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN

Clint Eastwood nearly died while serving in the US army, despite never being in a combat zone.

The Oscar-winning star hitched a ride in the radar compartment of a torpedo bomber flying to California when he was 20, and the door fell open, leaving him exposed thousands of feet above the ground.

Eastwood told Britain's Esquire magazine: "Those things aren't designed to carry humans and the intercom didn't work. I nearly fell out. I was a mile up and holding on for dear life."

The 'Flags of Our Fathers' director managed to wedge the door shut but as the plane climbed to a higher altitude he was forced to reach for a supply of oxygen and found that wasn't working either.

He passed out and came round an hour later to find the pilot had run out of fuel and was preparing to crash land in the sea.

Eastwood was thrown free and fought a powerful current to swim to shore.

He added: "I don't recall how long it took to get out but it was an ordeal I never want to repeat. I collapsed on the beach. After I came round, I began searching the beach for the pilot, every rock uncovered by the sea seemed to look like his body.

"After a while, I felt certain he'd drowned. It was a contradictory feeling. I felt terribly depressed at this idea, yet strangely elated because it wasn't me."

(C) BANG Media International