Nick Jonas and Glen Powell bonded over a terrifying flight nearly a decade ago when the plane experienced a power failure after takeoff, leaving one of the pilots visibly shaken. Jonas revealed the harrowing experience during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Mark on Friday, June 5, describing it as “one of those experiences you never forget.”
The incident occurred after Jonas and Powell traveled to Vegas together with a group of friends. “On the way home, the plane basically took off and then — I don’t know the technical term for it — but there was an issue with the power. Which is never a good thing, obviously,” Jonas explained to hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.
The severity of the situation became clear when the plane landed. “One of them was crying when we landed,” Jonas said of the pilots, adding that the flight attendants also appeared deeply concerned. Seeing the pilot’s emotional reaction made Jonas realize just how serious the emergency had been. “I was thinking, ‘Okay, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I sort of felt like it was.’ And then I saw him crying. I was like, ‘Oh no, this was bad,’ ” he recalled.
Glen Powell and Nick Jonas bonded over terrifying flight with power failure
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Jonas joked that the timing could have been worse. “This is pre-Top Gun: Maverick Glen Powell, so he was in flight training, but he couldn’t have landed the plane like he can now,” he said, noting that Powell’s aviation skills developed after this incident. The shared trauma created a lasting bond between the two actors. “That’s literally what that is,” Jonas agreed when Ripa called it a “trauma bond,” adding that the experience set the foundation for their close friendship. “From that moment on, we’ve just built a great friendship.”
Sources
- People.com — Nick Jonas’s account of the flight incident, the power failure, pilot’s reaction, and the bonding that resulted, from his June 5, 2026 appearance on Live with Kelly and Mark
