Donnie Wahlberg's Dassault Falcon 50 Runs Off Runway at Las Vegas After Aborted Takeoff
Why It MattersRunway excursions after rejected takeoffs hinge on stopping margin and what lies beyond the runway end, so the ground-stop response and the still-undetermined cause will frame how this event is read.
What happened
Actor and singer Donnie Wahlberg said a private jet carrying him ran off the end of the runway at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas after failing to get airborne on takeoff. Wahlberg, 57, wrote on Instagram that the aircraft "ran out of runway" and credited the pilots with keeping everyone safe.
The aircraft was a Dassault Falcon 50 bound for Toronto Pearson Airport in Canada, with eight passengers on board. Wahlberg said the group included him and his team and friends. He had just performed with his boy band at the group's Las Vegas residency at the Park MGM hotel.
Wahlberg said the airplane skidded off the runway into a fence and narrowly avoided heavy airport vehicles and equipment. "The airplane did take some lumps – but we did not," he wrote, thanking emergency personnel on the ground. An air traffic control recording posted to TikTok appears to capture a voice, presumably the pilot's, shouting "Aborting!" as emergency vehicles raced to the scene.
A report shared on social media said there were no known injuries. The airport initiated a ground stop beginning at 12:50 p.m. Officials had not determined the cause of the incident in the days afterward.
Industry impact & what to watch
An aborted takeoff that ends beyond the runway is a distinct kind of event from a landing overrun: the crew has already committed to the takeoff roll, and the margin left to stop depends on when the decision to reject is made and on the runway length still available. That is why investigators look at the sequence of the roll, not only at the aircraft, when a case like this is opened.
For private operators, the outcome here, with eight people aboard and no known injuries, shows how much the area past the runway end and the speed of the ground response matter. Passenger and crew survival in excursions often turns on what the aircraft meets after it leaves the pavement, and on how quickly emergency vehicles reach it.
The cause has not been determined, and that is the item that will carry the most weight next. Until officials say what prevented the aircraft from becoming airborne, whether the issue lay with the aircraft, the runway conditions or the takeoff decision remains an open investigative question.
