Harrison Ford Crash Lands Plane At Los Angeles Golf Course
LOS ANGELES (CBSNewYork/AP) - Harrison Ford crash-landed his vintage airplane at a Los Angeles golf course Thursday, an official tells The Associated Press.
He suffered moderate injuries and was taken to a hospital.
A source close to the family told CBS News that Ford suffered broken bones and was to undergo surgery late Thursday.
Los Angeles fire officials tell CBSLosAngeles the small, World War II-era plane, identified by the NTSB as a Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR, crashed about 2:24 p.m. at Penmar Golf Course, 1233 Rose Ave., not far from the Santa Monica airport.
The NTSB said the pilot reported loss of engine power and clipped the top of a tree as he landed on the golf course.
The pilot was breathing and conscious when he was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in fair to moderate condition, Los Angeles fire officials said.
Fire officials would not confirm the pilot's identity. However, an official familiar with the crash said it was Ford. The official spoke only condition of anonymity because of privacy restrictions.
Ford's son, Chef Ben Ford, tweeted Thursday evening saying his father was at the hospital.
The 72-year-old "Star Wars'' and "Indiana Jones'' actor is an aviation enthusiast who often flies out of the Santa Monica Airport. Penmar Golf Course, where the crash happened, is just west of a runway there.
The plane appeared to be a World War II-era vintage training plane. It was mostly intact after the wreck, and Ford was the only person aboard.
Nobody on the ground was hurt, but people rushed the scene and started helping Ford.
Jeff Kuprycz was golfing when he saw the plane taking off.
"Immediately you could see the engine started to sputter and just cut out, and he banked sharply to the left,'' he said. "He ended up crashing around the eighth hole.''
Kuprycz said the plane was about 200 feet overhead when it plunged to the ground.
"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,'' Kuprycz said.
Ford once owned a penthouse in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood which sold for $16 million in 2012.
Ford is cast to play swashbuckling space-age soldier-of-fortune Han Solo in his fourth "Star Wars'' movie, set for release in December.
The original "Star Wars'' in 1977 made Ford an overnight star who remains an A-list actor with several colossal box office hits in his credits. He played whip-slinging archaeologist Indiana Jones in four movies in that series.
Ford was hospitalized in 2012 after injuring his ankle in an accident on the London set of "Star Wars: Episode VII.''
He's been married since 2010 to "Ally McBeal'' actress Calista Flockhart.
Ford got his pilot's license in the late 1980s and has served as a spokesman to various airline associations. In 2009, he stepped down as chairman of a youth program for the Experimental Aircraft Association.
His flying made headlines in 2001 when he rescued a missing Boy Scout on his helicopter.
Nearly a year before, he rescued an ailing mountain climber in Jackson, Wyoming. He has also volunteered his services during forest-fire season, when rescue helicopter are busy fighting blazes.
The actor has said his rescues "had nothing to do with heroism.''
"It had to do with flying a helicopter. That's all,'' he said.
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