The Reader actress and her director spouse insist on travelling separately because they are terrified of being involved in an air crash which would leave their children parentless.
A spokesperson for the couple said, “Kate and Sam do prefer to travel in separate planes. It is not always possible but, for obvious reasons regarding the children, they do travel separately when they can.”
The couple’s phobia is said to stem from different air incidents they were involved in. Mendes was booked on the plane from Washington to Los Angeles that was hijacked by terrorists on September 11,2001. The aircraft was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon, killing all 64 people on board the plane and 125 in the government building.
A month later, Winslet and her daughter Mia were flying from London to Dallas when a passenger claiming to be an Islamic terrorist stood up and screamed: “We’re all going to die.” The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing to get the man arrested.
