Actor Harrison Ford suffered multiple gashes to his head and was left bleeding after the crash of a vintage two-seater plane on Thursday. - AFP
LOS ANGELES: Indiana Jones and Star Wars actor Harrison Ford was injured Thursday when his small plane crash-landed on a golf course outside Los Angeles, media reports and officials said.
The 72-year-old suffered multiple gashes to his head and was left bleeding after the crash of a vintage two-seater plane, according to the TMZ celebrity website, publishing a picture of the downed plane, its nose cone ripped open.
A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman, who did not identify Harrison, initially said the pilot was critically injured, but that was later changed to moderately hurt.
“When we arrived on scene we had a small aircraft that was down on Penmar Golf Course, near the Santa Monica Airport,” spokesman Erik Scott told AFP, recounting the early afternoon crash at the golf course in Venice, southwest of Los Angeles.
There was only one person in the plane, he said, declining to give a name, citing privacy issues.
Another LAFD spokesman, Patrick Butler, speaking at the scene, described the injuries as “fair to moderate".
“The patient left the scene conscious and breathing,” said Butler.
The KTLA television station cited witnesses as saying Ford was helped out of the plane by bystanders on the golf course, and that he could use his legs.
It showed video footage of the aircraft, which gashed a stretch of grass on the golf course before coming to a halt the right way up.
The crash is expected to be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said LA Fire Department spokesman Scott.
The plane involved is a Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR, the NTSB said in a tweet. The aircraft, used in training in World War II, flies in the mostly yellow colours of the US Army Air Corps.
Ford, who was photographed with the plane at Santa Monica Airport just a few days ago, is known in the US aviation community as an enthusiastic pilot.
He took his first flying lessons in college, gave up due to lack of money, but got back into it after becoming an established film star.
He has been the owner of several planes, from two-seat bush aircraft to corporate jets.
Last June, Ford broke his leg on the set of the new Star Wars movie at Pinewood Studios outside London.
Filming began in May last year on the new episode of the iconic franchise, directed by blockbuster filmmaker J.J. Abrams.
Ford is back as smuggler Han Solo, Mark Hamill will return as Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and Carrie Fisher, 57, reprises the role of Princess Leia. - AFP
