Harrison Ford injured in plane crash
LOS ANGELES -- 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.
The actor and private pilot reported engine failure and requested an immediate return about 2:25 p.m. PT, according to his conversation with air-traffic controllers. He failed to reach the runway, crash-landing instead on the approach to the 8th tee.
"Harrison was flying a WW2 vintage plane today which had engine trouble upon take off. He had no other choice but to make an emergency landing, which he did safely,'' Ford's publicist Ina Treciokas said in an emailed statement.
"He was banged up and is in the hospital receiving medical care. The injuries sustained are not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery," she said.
There was no fire. The open-cockpit plane was painted with vintage markings and looked as if it could have come from one of the movies in which Ford played adventurer Indiana Jones.
"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."
Doctors who were playing golf on the course assisted Ford from the wreckage, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement.
Ford was conscious and alert when paramedics arrived, Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Butler said.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene investigating the cause of the crash. NTSB investigator Patrick Jones said the plane would be removed from the golf course and taken to another location Friday for further investigation.
"This pilot is an experienced pilot,'' Jones said. "The pilot reported a loss of engine power and was attempting to return to the runway. "It appears he clipped the top of a tree and came to rest on the golf course.''
FAA will also look into the crash, the fire department said.
Ford's voice can be heard on an audio recording of his radio transmission to airport control.
"Engine failure . . . immediate return," Ford says to the control tower. The air traffic controller then gives him permission to make an emergency landing on runway 3.
Butler said the pilot suffered "moderate trauma'' and was "alert and conscious'' and breathing when responders arrived. He said responders administered an IV before transporting Ford to the hospital.
The plane crashed at the Penmar Golf Course in the Venice section of Los Angeles, just beyond the western end of the runway of the small Santa Monica airport.
Los Angeles police and fire officers declined to name injured pilot, citing health privacy laws.
Ford was the only one aboard the Ryan ST3KR, 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.
In the past 10 years, six other of the planes have been involved in accident, one fatal, FAA records show.
The single-wing propeller plane was 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.
Butler said the plane clipped tree branches before striking the ground. It came to rest with its nose facing into a small rise that forms a tee area near a tall chain link fence that borders the golf course.
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 fly single engine, multi-engine and instrument airplanes, and helicopters.
Carlos Gomez, 39, who lives just across street from crash site, said he heard the impact, ran outside and saw bystanders were helping the pilot from the plane.
"Big noise," he said of the crash.
The airport has long been the object of complaints by residents, and there have been numerous efforts to close the Santa Monica airport. But it is a popular airport for private pilots and charter aircraft, often picking up or returning the rich and famous who live in the area on the west side of Los Angeles.
"My concern is they should close the airport before something big happens," Gomez said.
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 NTSB 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.
Contributing: Bill Keveney, Maria Puente, Andrea Mandell and Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY