LOS ANGELES — Harrison Ford was recovering Friday after his vintage plane crashed on a golf course not far from Santa Monica Municipal Airport.
Ford's World War II-era plane's sole engine lost power Thursday afternoon, transit officials said. In a recording, the veteran actor is heard alerting the airport's control tower, "Engine failure; immediate return."
Just blocks from the runway, the plane clipped a tree at the Penmar Golf Course in Venice, then landed on a fairway.
"He had no other choice but to make an emergency landing, which he did safely," Ford's publicist, Ina Treciokas, said in a statement.
Ford was hospitalized with fair to moderate injuries, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott.
"He was banged up," Ford's publicist said in the statement. "The injuries sustained are not life threatening."
KTLA, citing an unnamed source close to the family reported that Ford had surgery for broken bones in his ankle and pelvis.
After the landing, a group of golfers helped pull Ford from the plane and began administering first aid, said Carlos Gomez, who lives just yards away from the site of the crash on Dewey Street. Gomez was cooking when he heard the plane hit the ground outside.
At first, Ford, 72, lay motionless, then he started to move. "So I was like, good, he's alive," Gomez said.
Spinal surgeon Sanjay Khurana was golfing next to Santa Monica Airport when he saw the plane "belly flop" and rushed to the fairway where it came to rest.
He tells TV stations in Los Angeles that aside from worrying about Ford's injuries from the impact, he saw fuel leaking out of the World War II-era plane.
He and other golfers pulled Ford from the wreckage. Others threw dirt on the fuel so it wouldn't catch fire.
"Dad is ok. Battered, but ok!" the actor's son, Ben Ford, posted on Twitter. "He is every bit the man you would think he is. He is an incredibly strong man."
The National Transportation Safety Board arrive at the crash site Thursday night and is investigating the incident.
The veteran actor had departed from the airport in his vintage Ryan plane around 2:20 p.m. He then notified the airport's control tower about a loss of engine power, said Patrick Jones of the NTSB.
"Any time a pilot survives an accident I would say that is a good thing," Jones said.
Ford is an avid aviator who is often seen flying vintage planes out of Santa Monica Airport. Photos show Ford piloting the plane involved in the crash, a Ryan PT-22 Recruit that's registered to Delaware-based MG Aviation Inc., according to the Federal Aviation Administration's records.
Ford's aviation hobby has put him in danger before. In 1999, Ford was riding in a helicopter with his flight instructor when it crashed into a Ventura County riverbed. The "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" actor walked away unscathed.
Ford has been recovering from a broken leg since June. While filming "Star Wars: Episode VII" last summer, the veteran actor's left leg broke in an accident involving the door of the film franchise's famed Millennium Falcon spaceship. The injury required him to have surgery and go through rehab, causing a two-week hiatus in filming during August.
© 2015 Los Angeles Times
Updated: Harrison Ford recovering after crash landing plane on golf course (w/video) 03/06/15 [Last modified: Friday, March 6, 2015 10:23am]
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