Harrison Ford & Plane Crash

A small plane crashed on a golf course : Harrison Ford was flying the plane.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Harrison Ford was injured Thursday afternoon when his vintage single-engine airplane crashed on a golf course shortly after taking off from Santa Monica Airport, according to news reports and the 72-year-old actor's son.

Ford was conscious and alert when paramedics arrived, and he was taken to a nearby hospital, according to KNX-AM, NBC and TMZ.com. Officials said he suffered "moderate trauma."

"Dad is ok. Battered, but ok!" Ford's son, Ben, a chef in Los Angeles, tweeted from the hospital. "He is every bit the man you would think he is. He is an incredibly strong man."

The Los Angeles Fire Department initially reported that Ford was in "critical" condition, but that was later upgraded to "serious" and then "moderate."

The FAA confirmed the plane crashed at about 2:25 p.m. PT. It came down at the Penmar Golf Course in the Venice section of Los Angeles, just past the runway of the small airport.

NBC4-TV said an unidentified relative indicated Ford received cuts but otherwise appeared to be okay. "He's fine. He has a few gashes," the station quoted him as saying.

Los Angeles police and fire officers declined to name injured pilot, citing health privacy laws.

Ford was the only one aboard the Ryan P-22, which has two open cockpits. FAA records show the plane was built in 1942 and was certified airworthy until Oct. 31. It is registered to MG Aviation Inc., in Camden, Del.
Aerial images showed the single-wing propeller plane painted to resemble a U.S. Army Air Corps trainer from before World War II. It has a single fuselage with yellow wings and tail. The grass behind the plane is deeply rutted, indicating the plane skidded before coming to a stop. Fire officials say it hit a tree along the way.

Ford has been a licensed pilot since at least 2002, FAA records show. His most recent license, certified in May, rates him as private pilot qualified to flight single engine, multi-engine and instrument airplanes, and helicopters.

A small plane crashed on a golf course : Harrison Ford's plane.

The PenMar Golf Course is next to the Santa Monica Airport, so golfers hear plane after plane taking off and flying overhead, said Jeff Kuprycz, 30, co-owner of A-Frame, an artist-management company, who was on the second hole at the time of the crash.

"This plane sounded different. We heard it sputtering and it just went silent, literally right over our heads," Kuprycz said. Immediately, Kuprycz saw the plane bank left, as if turning back to the airport.

The plane crashed about 900 feet away on the 8th hole.

"There was no smoke, no fire," he said.

Ground crew, who arrived quickly on the scene, told Kuprycz and his friends that Harrison Ford was piloting the plane. They also told Kuprycz that two spinal surgeons were playing the 8th hole at the time of the crash. They helped Ford, who was bleeding from a big gash on his head, out of the plane.

It's not Ford's first crash.

In October 1999, he was piloting a Bell 206L4 LongRanger helicopter (N36R) with an instructor when the helicopter "landed hard and rolled over" in the Lake Piru riverbed near Santa Clarita, Calif., according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

Neither Ford nor the instructor were injured, but the helicopter took serious damage.

Ford told National Geographic that "there was a mechanical failure while we were practicing power recovery autorotations. It was more or less a hard landing. Luckily, I was with another aviation professional and neither of us was hurt—and both of us are still flying."

As for the helicopter? Ford joked dryly: "It wasn't quite intact."

Thursday's crash marked the second high-profile accident for Ford in the past year.

Shooting on Star Wars: The Force Awakens was shut down for several weeks last July after Ford broke his leg during filming at the Pinewood Studios outside London. The accident involved the spacecraft door of the Millennium Falcon, which makes a return in the highly anticipated film.

Returning to play Han Solo isn't the only famous role Ford is planning to reprise. He is expected to star in a sequel, currently in development, of the 1982 cult science-fiction film Blade Runner.
Harrison Ford, actor and pilot, attends the Annual "Living Legends of Aviation" on Jan. 16, 2015 in Beverly Hills. He received the Legends Aviation Legacy Award for his service introducing young people to flight. (Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez, Getty Images)
2740 CONNECT 676 TWEET 3 LINKEDIN 48 COMMENTEMAILMORE

Cr.USA Post Today