Patrick Swayze In Crash Landing

Actor Patrick Swayze escaped an emergency landing near this town north of Phoenix without injury although the small plane he was flying was damaged, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

FAA spokesman John Clabes said Swayze was forced to make the landing Thursday while flying a 1978 twin-engine Cessna 414A from Van Nuys, Calif., to Las Vegas, N.M., where he has a home.

The FAA monitors who control the airspace lost sight of him on radar at 13,000 feet around 11 a.m. and couldn't contact him by radio.

Sgt. P.J. Janik, a spokesman for the Prescott Valley police, said a witness who saw the plane make the emergency landing called police. As it landed, the plane sheared off a four-foot section of its right wing after hitting a light pole, then went down along an empty paved road in an unfinished subdivision under construction in this town 90 miles north of Phoenix.

Janik said witnesses reported seeing the man flag down a passing motorist for a ride.

Swayze's spokeswoman Annett Wolf in Los Angeles confirmed Swayze had made an emergency landing and that he was not seriously hurt but declined further comment.

It was not immediately clear what forced Swayze to make an emergency landing, but FAA officials had been told the plane may have had a pressurization problem.

Swayze, 47, has starred in several movies, including Ghost, a hit with Demi Moore, and Dirty Dancing, the 1987 movie that helped him launch his career.