Harrison Ford narrowly avoided a serious collision as he was landing his private aircraft in California this week, after mistakenly dropping down on a taxiway, almost on top of an airliner carrying around 100 passengers.
The Federal Aviation Administration is now involved in investigating why Ford, who has been piloting private aircraft for years, to the detriment of himself and people in the Los Angeles area, decided to bring his plane down in the middle of John Wayne Airport’s road system, rather than on a runway.
It’s unclear how close Ford came to clipping the American Airlines plane, but he did ask air traffic control, “Was that airliner supposed to be underneath me?”
This is far from Ford’s first run-in with the FAA, and just the latest in a long line of airplane mishaps involving the Star Wars actor, who is luckier as a pilot in the films than he is in real life.
According to AirSafe.com, which records plane crash information compiled from the FAA, this is Ford’s third crash or near-crash.
In March of 2015, Ford sustained serious injuries after he crashed his World War II Ryan ST3KR Recruit training plane on a golf course. Ford had just taken off from a small, private airport in Santa Monica, when he turned the craft left, hit a tree and then the ground, skidding 25 feet onto the course. Ford was knocked out and woke up later, in the hospital, with severe injuries (including a broken leg) and no memory of the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board later ruled that the crash was likely the result of a mechanical problem that resulted in engine power loss.
In 2000, Ford’s plane was blown off a runway in Lincoln, Nebraska, after a gust of wind hit his Beechcraft Bonanza during takeoff. The plane was slightly damaged but Ford and his passengers were unhurt.
A year earlier, while Ford was training as a helicopter pilot, he and his instructor were forced to make an emergency landing in a Santa Clarita, California, dry creek bed. The pilot trainee, Ford, was practicing his autorotations, when he tilted the aircraft, causing it to lose power. They landed safely, but slid a little on the sand and the helicopter tipped over. The NTSB determined that crash was the result of pilot error (and a bad instructor).
Whether Ford’s fault or not, it’s clear that Harrison Ford and planes are not a match made in heaven. It may be in the best interest of the state of California to, if not revoke Ford’s pilot license, ensure that the actor is allowed to fly only when there are no other planes in the sky, or on the ground, and people have been evacuated from the immediate area.
Fortunately, at least for the cast and crew of Star Wars, Ford’s character Han Solo died in the last film, Episode VII, so he can’t delay production with this latest incident.