Entertainment Tonight has obtained audio of an interview Harrison Ford gave the FAA about a near-miss incident in his plane in early February. In that incident, Ford attempted to land at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. Instead of landing on the runway, however, he landed on a taxiway, coming perilously close to a Boeing 737 in the process. Over 100 people were on board the plane, and the FAA is none too happy.
OK, we know the picture is from his other plane incident, when he crashed his vintage plane on a golf course fairway. We just couldn’t resist using it.
In the telephone interview with the FAA, Ford expresses regret over the incident.
From EntertainmentTonight.com:
“[I’m] the schmuck that landed on the taxiway,” Ford tells the FAA rep on the other end of the line, explaining, “I was distracted by the airliner which was in movement when I turned to the runway and also the big turbulence from the landing.”
During the incident, Ford’s single-engine Aviat Husky made a “hard descend” onto the taxiway — after being cleared to land on a runway — passing over a Boeing 737 carrying 110 passengers and six crew members.
The pilot of the Boeing can be heard on a separate call detailing how close Ford seemed, explaining, “The tail of my airplane is 42 ft. tall. So when he went by … you get an idea of how close it was.”
“Immediately after [Harrison’s] plane was on the taxiway, several ramp agents just stopped and stood in shock,” an eyewitness told ET at the time of the incident. “It was almost like they were thinking, ‘Dude, what are you doing?’ [Harrison] then continued to move the plane down the taxiway. Other people in the terminal with me were really confused on what was going on. I never saw him get out of the plane because he kept moving the plane down the taxiway to a spot where he was eventually out of my sight.”
The FAA investigation into the near-miss continues, and it is possible that Ford could lose his pilot’s license.