Christie Brinkley, popular for her iconic Sports Illustrated covers and her role as “The girl in the red Ferrari” in the 1983 film National Lampoon’s Vacation, once had a brush with death. While flying over Colorado’s San Juan Mountains with five others during a heli-skiing expedition in 1994, the helicopter conveying them suddenly veered sharply before plummeting toward the ground. Miraculously, all passengers survived, though Brinkley sustained minor injuries.
The incident, which could have easily ended in catastrophe, left an indelible mark on the 71-year-old, who has over the years, been thankful to be alive. Decades later, the actress recently reminisced about the near-tragic incident in her new memoir, Uptown Girl, revealing her belief about how she survived the crash.
Christie Brinkley says surviving the helicopter crash was a true miracle
View this post on Instagram
Brinkley revealed in the book that just two weeks before the accident, she visited the respected holy site of the Santuario de Chimayo, which is in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, north of Santa Fe in New Mexico, where she got some of the golden soil, which is thought to have protective qualities.
On the day of the accident, she recalled having an unsettling premonition, which prompted her to sprinkle some of the sacred dirt from Chimayo on the aircraft as a plea for protection. The actress revealed that throughout the flight, they narrowly avoided disaster multiple times before the crash. While crediting their survival to either divine intervention or an extraordinary kind of luck, she wrote that even the investigators were deeply shocked that anyone survived the accident, describing the group’s survival as nothing short of a miracle.
Christie Brinkley says the accident reshaped her perspective on life
The experience had a profound and lasting impact, reshaping Brinkley’s outlook on life. She shared with Fox News Digital that she found herself appreciating even the smallest moments, such as holding her daughter Alexa again or just watching the sunlight streaming through her window early in the morning, most of which she had previously taken for granted.
The Goldbergs actress also revealed that the near-death experience made her acutely aware of the fragility of life and the importance of living intentionally, thus leading her to make certain important decisions for her life.