Blake Hall
Harrison Ford, the Hollywood actor famous for his roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, crashed a vintage World War II single-engine plane on a Los Angeles golf course Thursday afternoon shortly after taking off from Santa Monica Airport.
According to his publicist, Ina Treciokas, the actor, 72, is “banged up” but did not sustain any life threatening injuries. He’s currently in the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
Ford’s son Ben, a chef in Los Angeles, tweeted this out shortly after the crash:
At the hospital. Dad is ok. Battered, but ok! He is every bit the man you would think he is. He is an incredibly strong man.
— Chef Ben Ford (@ChefBenFord) March 6, 2015
The actor, also a private pilot, reported engine failure to air traffic controllers and requested immediate return to the airport before failing to reaching the runway and skidding onto the area around Penmar Golf Course’s eighth tee box, in the Venice section of Los Angeles.
Doctors who were playing golf at the time assisted in helping Ford – who was conscious and alert – amid the wreckage, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The plane Ford was piloting was a Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR, part of the 1,000 the California-based company made between 1934 and 1943. Some were used as trainers in World War II.
A predecessor to the famed Spirit of St. Louis, the actor’s ST3KR was built in 1942. It had two open cockpits, a single propeller, and was painted (yellow wings and tail) to resemble the actual ones that were part of the United States Army Air Corps’ fleet.