The Killers rocker Brandon Flowers almost ended his four years of sobriety during a terrifying plane journey through a violent tropical storm.

The Mr. Brightside hitmaker quit booze in 2009 to preserve his singing voice from the damage caused by dehydration, but he was sorely tempted to reach for the bottle during a bone-shaking flight over South America in March (13).

The trip from Colombia to Mexico was so petrifying it even undid years of psychological counselling Flowers had undergone to get over his crippling fear of flying.

He tells Q magazine, "We took off from Bogota, Colombia, heading to Mexico. It was stormy and I've never been so scared in my life. It felt like we were never going to make it to our cruising altitude. Years ago I saw a psychiatrist to get over my fear of flying and this ruined it all for me. I felt like I'd lost all the mental training that I'd gone through.

"I was sat next to our tour manager and he was scared to death. When other people start to worry like that it magnifies your own fear. I don't ever want to feel like that again... I don't (miss drinking). Apart from on that plane in Colombia. I could have done with a couple of big ones then."