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Harrison Ford's Plane Crashes On Golf Course
First time accepted submitter dark.nebulae writes Harrison Ford's PT-22 crash landed on a golf course in Los Angeles. From the article: "Actor Harrison Ford was hospitalized Thursday afternoon after a single-engine plane he was piloting crashed onto a Venice golf course shortly after takeoff. Just before 4:30 p.m. a family member confirmed to NBC4 that the actor is 'fine' and suffered a few gashes. Aerial footage of the minutes after the crash showed the small single-engine vintage World War II trainer plane crashed on the ground at Penmar Golf Club, and one person being treated by paramedics and being transported to a hospital. Firefighters described his injuries were described as 'moderate.'"
Harrison is such a badass that he survived the crash and was awake and alert when he was taken to hospital.
Looking at the pictures, he glided the aircraft to an open field and landed without the landing gear. This picture shows the cockpit intact, as well as the skidmarks from the belly-first landing.
:)
Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. If the aircraft is still serviceable afterwards, it was an excellent landing.
This was definitely a good landing
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
Looking at the pictures, he glided the aircraft to an open field and landed without the landing gear.
The PT-22 doesn't have retractable landing gear. They were there. They probably broke off in the crash. What he did is pretty much all you can do if you lose an engine at that phase of departure (all fixed wing aircraft departing KSMO on 21 turn to climb out over Penmar - a municipal, public 9-hole golf course - for noise abatement). Here's me departing that same runway over that same golf course, a little bit ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fv0_gLG3C4 He was probably 2-300' AGL, not high enough to return to land on 3.
geek. lawyer.
I saw the incident from my back yard. I was out there working on a Mr. Protocol column when I heard a particularly loud single-engine plane take off. What caught my attention was a sound I've only ever heard in the movies: the engine stuttered once, then stopped dead. I got up and looked to see if what I'd heard was really true, and saw the plane, with prop not moving, bank sharply in a 180 degree turn and start gliding back to the airport. I listened for a crash, since he was rather low, but didn't hear one. I'm glad he made the golf course and missed the neighborhood. (Look at a map: it's pretty obvious that the sole purpose of the Penmar Golf Course is to catch planes that don't make it. It happens often enough that I've wondered if they have course rules for playing around temporary obstacles with wings.)