Leonardo DiCaprio nearly died in two freak airplane accidents when on his way to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin to talk about tigers.

The Oscar-winning actor flew to St Petersburg, Russia to meet with 13 countries’ governments to discuss how to protect endangered Amur tigers.

However, DiCaprio’s trip turned into a near-death experience when his Delta Airline plane had to make an emergency landing soon after departing from New York.

His second plane ride proved far from plain sailing too.

The 47-year-old recalled how he was onboard the plane when he looked out the window and saw that its engine had ‘exploded’, The Mirror reports.

Detailing the incident on a 2016 episode of The Ellen Show, DiCaprio stated: “I was looking out of the window and the entire engine had turned into a fireball.

“[…] I was the only person who seemed to see this. […] I kind of felt like I had already died and gone to heaven ‘cos no one said anything.

“I was screaming at the top of my lungs shouting, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ And the stewardess came out and said, ‘We seem to have a slight problem here’.”

The plane was forced to unload fuel for 45 minutes before it made an emergency landing, resulting in passengers being met with ‘a hundred different ambulances’ as it touched down.

“All the tyres exploded […] That was another bummer. […] I feel like I should write a book,” DiCaprio reflected.

After boarding a second plane, DiCaprio only made it as far as Helsinki after the craft began struggling with strong winds and had to stop to get more fuel.

However, third time lucky, DiCaprio did manage to make it to St Petersburg to go over ways in which to help save the tigers from extinction.

DiCaprio’s treacherous journey to make the conference didn’t go unnoticed by the Russian president either.

After praising the actor for his significant donation to the World Wildlife Fund – $1 million – Putin dubbed DiCaprio a ‘muzhik’ (‘real man’) for making it to Russia despite his travel tribulations.

The Kremlin leader stated: “Not all of the passengers wanted to continue their flight right away, but Mr DiCaprio was not one of them. A person with less stable nerves could have decided against coming, could have read it as a sign – that it was not worth going.”

According to Russia’s Wildlife Conservation Society, there are currently only 350-400 tigers Siberian or Amur tigers left in the wild, and the species remains critically endangered.

Putin and DiCaprio reportedly bonded over the actor’s Russian heritage.

However, in 2016, DiCaprio clarified to German outlet Welt am Sonntag that while he viewed Putin as ‘very, very interesting’, he and the president ‘talked only about the protection of these magnificent animals, not politics’. However, the actor did note that he would ‘love to play [Putin]’ if a film were ever to be made about the Kremlin leader.

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