Harrison Ford plane crash: Actor survives crash-landing after losing engine power

Harrison Ford has been injured after his WW2 small plane crashed in California.

Harrison Ford, 72, reported engine failure and crash-landed his vintage plane on a Venice golf course.

The actor was breathing and alert when medics arrived and took him to hospital in a “fair to moderate” condition, a fire department spokesman said.

Harrison Ford’s son Ben, a chef in Los Angeles, later tweeted from the hospital: “Dad is OK. Battered but OK!”

The actor’s publicist said: “The injuries sustained are not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery.”

The nature of Harrison Ford’s injuries have not been disclosed but website TMZ, which first reported the story, said he suffered “multiple gashes to his head”.

Shortly after take-off from Santa Monica Airport, he said he was having engine failure with his 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR and was making an “immediate return”.

Harrison Ford was unable to reach the runway and landed on the golf course, where onlookers pulled him from the plane fearing it could explode.

Officials said the plane had been flying at about 3,000 feet and hit a tree on the way down.

“There was no explosion or anything. It just sounded like a car hitting the ground or a tree or something. Like that one little bang, and that was it,” Jeff Kuprycz, who was playing golf told the Associated Press.

“He ended up crashing around the eighth hole.”

Christian Fry of the Santa Monica Airport Association said it was “an absolutely beautifully executed emergency landing by an unbelievably well-trained pilot”.

Film producer Ryan Kavanaugh witnessed the accident from his office near the airport where Harrison Ford had taken off.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: “He literally had five seconds, and 99 per cent of pilots would have turned around to go back to the runway and would have crashed – it would have stalled, gone nose first and crashed.”

“Harrison did what the best pilots in the world would do,” he continued.

“He made the correct turn that the plane was designed for with an engine out.”

After crash-landing, Harrison Ford was initially treated by two doctors who happened to be at the golf course.

Fire Department spokesman Patrick Butler said the LAFD received a 911 emergency call at 14:20 local time and attended to a “medium-to-high impact” plane crash at the Penmar Golf Course.

There have been calls from local people to close Santa Monica airport, which is situated in a residential district, because of concerns about safety and noise.