Harrison Ford has been pictured out for the first time since getting himself trouble again for flying his plane, after mishearing instructions just after landing at a California airport.
The Star Wars actor was seen looking concerned as he checked his phone as he arrived at Santa Monica airport on Friday.
Ford, 77, was told to hold short of the runway at Hawthorne Airport in California last Friday because another aircraft was practicing touch-and-go landings there, but he still crossed and taxied to the other end, much to the alarm of the tower operator.
Just hearing the news? Harrison Ford pictured Friday in Santa Monica, after getting in trouble for mishearing instructions just after landing at a California airport.
After landing in the airport, audio obtained by TMZ revealed the tower operator told the star: ‘Can you hold short on runway. Traffic on the runway.’
However, Ford accelerated onto the runway and began crossing, with the operator angrily saying the veteran pilot had ignored his instructions.
Ford profusely apologized and said he thought he was told he had been cleared to cross the runway.
Trouble on the ground: The Star Wars actor was told to hold short of the runway at Hawthorne Airport in California last Friday
A mistake: Another aircraft was practicing touch-and-go landings there, but he still crossed and taxied to the other end, much to the alarm of the tower operator. Ford is seen here in 2010
There was no danger of the aircraft crashing because the other plane was 3,600 feet away from Ford’s when it hit the runway and was up in the air again long before reaching the area where the actor was.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking into the incident.
A spokesperson for the actor said: ‘Mr. Ford crossed the airport’s only runway in his aircraft after he misheard a radio instruction from ATC.
‘He immediately acknowledged the mistake and apologized to ATC for the error. The purpose of the flight was to maintain currency and proficiency of the aircraft.’
The Blade Runner actor was getting his pilot’s license updated so he could take part in more relief efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Star Wars actor was told to hold short of the runway at Hawthorne Airport in California
The incident comes five years after Ford broke his pelvis and ankle when his World-War II-era ST3KR aircraft suffered engine failure and made an emergency landing on a Santa Monica golf course in March 2015.
After plunging 3,000ft and hitting a tree on the way down, Ford was rushed from the scene bleeding heavily from a head wound.
But Ford was praised for keeping his cool and managing to glide his airplane into the crash landing.
Moments before the crash, in audio of his conversation with air traffic control, an unemotional Ford was heard asking for an emergency landing because his engine had failed. Ford later insisted his brush with death wouldn’t keep him away from the cockpit.
He said: ‘It was one time – and I didn’t crash, the plane crashed. I didn’t get right out of it, but I’m fine now, it took a while.’
Asked if it had put him off flying, he added: ‘No, it’s a big part of who I am.’
The crash: Five years ago, Harrison broke his pelvis and ankle when his aircraft suffered engine failure and made an emergency landing in March 2015, but he later insisted it wouldn’t put him off flying
In February 2017, Ford mistakenly landed on the taxiway at John Wayne Airport, narrowly missing a Boeing 737 full of passengers.
Ford had been instructed to land on runway 20-L at the airport in Orange County, California.
But the then-74-year-old mistakenly aimed for a taxiway, just passing over an American Airlines 737 loaded with more than 100 passengers and a six-person crew.
‘Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?’ he asked Air Control.
When told he was on a taxiway, Ford immediately acknowledged his error, saying on the radio, ‘I’m the schmuck.’
The Federal Aviation Administration said that controllers had given Ford clear instructions to land on the runway, as landing on a taxiway is a safety violation. They say the actor read the instructions back yet still somehow ended up aiming for the taxiway.
In the February 2017 incident, Ford mistakenly landed on the taxiway at John Wayne Airport, narrowly passing over an American Airlines 737 loaded with more than 100 passengers
Time to get grounded? Harrison pictured in February this year
According to an Aviation Magazine article published in 2010, Ford’s fascination with planes dates back to the 1960s, when he took some flying lessons in Wisconsin.
Ford rediscovered his passion for aviation three decades later, when he was in his early 50s. He has held a pilot’s certificate for more than 20 years and has logged thousands of hours in the air.
In 1999, Ford crash-landed a Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter in a dry riverbed in suburban Los Angeles.
And in 2000 wind sheer forced him to perform an emergency landing in a Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft at Nebraska’s Lincoln Municipal Airport.
The plane clipped the runway and its wing tips were damaged, but Ford and his passenger were uninjured.
Meanwhile, he is ready to put his Indiana Jones hat back on.
The veteran actor leaked new details about the forthcoming fifth sequel while sitting down with Ellen DeGeneres in February.
Ford revealed that the movie is definitely in the works.
After Ellen asked about the movie, the Star Wars actor replied with a tricky double negative.
He will be filming another Indiana Jones movie soon
‘I can deny that it’s NOT happening,’ he smiled, letting several seconds pass before audiences finally caught on and erupted into applause.
Harrison also revealed that the saga will begin filming again this summer, but those plans must have changed now that COVID-19 has slowed Hollywood.
Ford said he was still ‘excited to play Indie, 39 years after originally playing the adventurous archaeologist.
‘It’s gonna be fun,’ he told Ellen ‘I am excited. They’re great fun to make.’
Indiana Jones won over audiences with 1981’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark – largely considered one of the best films in the action-adventure genre.
It was followed up by the equally beloved prequel Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom in 1984, and then later the sequel Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade in 1989.
Indie got the reboot treatment once more in 2008 with Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, which was slammed by fans and critics.
HARRISON’S BRAVADO EQUALS THAT OF HAN SOLO AND INDIANA JONES
Harrison Ford is as much the daredevil in real life as Han Solo, Indiana Jones or the other larger-than-life characters he’s played on the screen.
While his fictional adventures in ‘Star Wars’ and as bold archaeologist Jones have thrilled audiences, the star has run into real-life danger – and sometimes pain – while indulging in his love of aviation, fast driving and the unpredictability of filmmaking.
Beyond joy-riding in the skies, Ford also employs his skills as a pilot, acquired in his mid-50s, to help in search-and-rescue efforts.
Harrison Ford is as much the daredevil in real life as Han Solo (pictured) Indiana Jones or the other larger-than-life characters he’s played on the screen
Here are a few of his closer brushes, some more dramatic than others, as well as heroic moments:
- The scar on his face that lends him a rakish look was earned, he’s said, in ‘a mundane way.’ In 1964, he was speeding to a job at a department store in Orange County, California, when his car veered off the road and into a telephone pole as he fumbled for his seat belt.
- In 1999, Ford crash-landed his helicopter during a training flight in which he and an instructor were practicing auto rotations in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles. Ford and the instructor were unhurt.
- He used his helicopter in 2000 to pluck an Idaho Falls, Idaho, hiker off 11,106-foot Table Mountain in Teton County, Wyoming, and fly her to a hospital.
- One year later, Ford and another searcher helped find a missing Boy Scout in a forest south of Yellowstone National Park. ‘Boy, you sure must have earned a merit badge for this one,’ said Ford told the cold and hungry teenager after whisking him to safety by chopper.
- Ford was at the helm of a Beechcraft Bonanza in 2000 when wind shear forced him to make an emergency landing at Lincoln Municipal Airport in Nebraska. Ford and his passenger were uninjured when the plane clipped the runway and its wing tips were damaged, officials said.
- In 2014, he was filming ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ in a studio outside London when a door of Solo’s Millennium Falcon spacecraft fell and broke the actor’s leg, requiring surgery on it. He recovered and returned to complete his work on the movie.
- In 2015, he suffered his most serious crash at the helm of the Ryan PT-22 Recruit vintage plane which he managed to crash land on a Santa Monica golf course.
- In 2017, he narrowly missed hitting an American Airlines Boeing 737 at John Wayne Airport after accidentally landing on the taxiway rather than the runway.