Jeff Bezos is famous for transforming an online bookstore into an e-commerce juggernaut in just a few years.
The founder of Amazon (AMZN) is currently focused on the conquest of space with his company Blue Origin.
If paparazzi have snapped photos of the billionaire's vacation with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez since his divorce from MacKenzie Scott, his intimacy remains a secret.
It is difficult to know his habits or his fears, for example. Sanchez has just revealed one of Bezos' biggest fears. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, she indicated that the billionaire had a fear of flying.
'Avoid Helicopters Whenever Possible'
Bezos was in a helicopter crash in 2003 and credits Sánchez with getting him comfortable in the air again. In March 2003, Bezos was looking for a place to test-fire rocket engines from his newly-created aerospace venture Blue Origin. He visited a canyon near Cathedral Mountain, nearly 50 miles from the border with Mexico.
The billionaire who was in a hurry to return to Amazon headquarters in Seattle insisted on touring the land by air rather than on horseback as locals recommended, according to an account by Washington Post journalist Christian Davenport in his book "The Space Barons : Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos." He boarded on an Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopter with three other people including the pilot.
Davenport wrote that a gust of wind blew the Gazelle toward a tree line. The pilot lost control, and the chopper clipped a mound of dirt, toppling it over. The rotor blades snapped off and the chassis rolled and tumbled into Calamity Creek, breaking off the helicopter's tail boom in the process.
The chassis landed upside-down in the creek. All four occupants of the helicopter escaped alive, but Bezos was shaken.
"Avoid helicopters whenever possible," Bezos told Fast Company in 2004 about the accident. "They're not as reliable as fixed-wing aircraft."
Sanchez and Bezos find their inspiration in the sky. Sanchez is a helicopter pilot. She often pilots Bezos and their families on trips around the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, she's in the cockpit of a helicopter at least three times a week to keep up with the latest instruments and technology. It is this passion for piloting that she communicated to Bezos.
Bezos About to Get a Pilot License
She helped him overcome his fear of flying. As a result, he is in the process of obtaining a helicopter pilot license himself.
"This is one of the only places I feel entirely in control,” Sánchez said.
This revelation will undoubtedly surprise the general public, in particular because Bezos created Blue Origin in 2000. The company provides manufacturing and suborbital spaceflight services. Its main competitor is Elon Musk's SpaceX. In 2021, Bezos went to space with his brother on the first-ever Blue Origin crewed mission.
In 2024, it will be Sanchez's turn. She will be leading an all-female mission to outer space on Blue Origin
"As much as he [Jeff Bezos] wants to go on this flight, I’m going to have to hold him back,” Sanchez said. "He’ll be cheering us all on from the sidelines.”
In the same interview, she said that Bezos prepares pancakes on Sundays.
"Every Sunday morning, Jeff makes pancakes. He wakes up early. He gets the Betty Crocker cookbook out every time, and I’m like, 'OK, you’re the smartest man in the world; why don’t you have this memorized yet?' But he opens it up every time: Exact portions make the best pancakes in the world."
She also told the Wall Street Journal that the billionaire is funny: "That he’s really funny? He makes me laugh all the time. He can be goofy."
