Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson says he missed UFL season opener due to plane emergency

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson says he is feeling grateful after an airplane he was traveling in recently was forced to make an emergency landing.

Johnson recalled the ordeal in a video posted to his X page, saying that while on his way to the United Football League season opener in Houston, he was informed by the pilot about that they had to return to Hawaii, from where they had just departed 35-40 minutes prior.

“The pilot comes back to me, he gets down on one knee and he faces me face-to-face – and it’s just me on the plane, just me and the crew – and he says, ‘Mr. Johnson, I’m sorry to inform you, but we cannot continue to fly over the ocean. We have a problem,’” Johnson recalled.

According to the “Jumanji” star, the pilot had given the actor his word that he would get him “back safely on the island” and explained that it was a “hydraulics issue” that caused the plane’s malfunction.

At one point, Johnson caught himself thinking, “Is this it? Is this how I check out?”

The incident sparked a moment of clarity for Johnson, he said, which came to him while he was sipping on a drink as the plane made its way back to land.

“You start to realize really quickly the s— that’s really important in life and then you realize the s— that doesn’t matter,” Johnson said. “I had one of those moments.”

Johnson was on his way to Houston to help kick off the start of the UFL’s second season. The St. Louis Battlehawks bested the Houston Roughnecks in the Friday game, which was reportedly sparsely attended.

In 2023, Johnson announced that he was merging the football minor league XFL, which he owned, with the USFL, which was owned by Fox, into what is now known as the UFL.

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