How ‘American Idol’ Taylor Hicks Nearly Died in Near Plane Crash

“American Idol” Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks was aboard his private airplane Wednesday when it nearly crashed after one of the engines blew out.

The plane was making its way from Tennessee to Alabama when things went awry. “I'm asleep in the copilot chair and I wake up to this muttering sound and I knew that the pilot was going to descend,” Hicks, 40, said. “And as soon as we descended to about 7,000 feet, two of the pistons blew, oil went everywhere and the engine stopped and the rotor blade stopped in midair.”

Describing it as “something out of a movie,” Hicks described the wave of emotions that came over him. “And I looked over and I just thought to myself, what can you do? You're absolutely helpless in this situation because, you know, we lost a complete engine. Luckily, I was on a twin-engine private aircraft. And I just felt like my life and all of our lives kind of flashed before our eyes a little bit. And we were just very thankful and very blessed that we had a wonderful, graceful, amazing pilot that was able to handle this situation, and it was literally unbelievable how he sat that plane down from going from two engines to one engine.”

Hicks recently stopped by to chat with “Extra” about his new Family Entertainment Network show. He is the host of “State Plate,” a travel and food show celebrating the unique food traditions of all 50 states.