Tom Cruise Lands a Helicopter in a Family’s Field

Tom Cruise recently had to land a helicopter in a family’s field, and he thanked them by offering them a ride. The actor has been in Europe filming Mission: Impossible 7 and was running late for a meeting due to the airport near Birmingham, United Kingdom being closed. CBS News reports that U.K. resident Alison Webb was asked if it would be OK for a helicopter to land in her family’s field near Warwickshire. They were told it was for a “VIP who was running late.”

When the aircraft landed, Cruise stepped out and surprised Webb and her family. “I thought it would be kind of cool for the kids to see the helicopter land in the garden,” Webb said. “He [Tom Cruise] basically arrived and got out and it was like, wow.” Webb went on to share that, after he emerged from the helicopter, Cruise walked straight over to her children and “elbow bumped” them as a way of saying hello and showing his gratitude.

“Then he said if the kids would like they could go up in the helicopter,” Webb shared next. “It turned out to be an incredible day.” She went on to say, “It was surreal, I still now can’t believe it happened.”

Notably, this is actually not the first headline story about Cruise’s helicopter etiquette to come out this year. Back in April, aerial camera operator Bill Bennett took to Facebook to recall an incident that took place on the set of the 1988 romantic dramedy Cocktail, which Cruise starred in with Elisabeth Shue. As Bennett recalled, Cruise once saved Shue’s life while they were filming a scene with a helicopter camera.

Cruise and Shue watched a playback of a scene on Bennett’s monitor, while the aircraft was landed but not shut down. Shue “took off suddenly, running towards the back of the helicopter,” where the blades were still spinning. In the midst of that very scary situation, Bennett says Cruise thought quickly and leaped into action. “Tom is a pilot, rated in both airplanes and helicopters, and instantly saw the danger. He lunged after her, but only was able to grab her legs, tackling her to the ground.”

Bennett continued, “At that point, she turned white, and he pulled her back towards the front of the helicopter and they walked away. All of us in the helicopter were quite shaken up by the close call, but there was nothing to be said. Tom had, in that instant, truly saved her life.”