Worrying audio has emerged of Harrison Ford‘s conversation with air traffic control before his near-crash landing this week at a California airport, in which he very nearly flew his private plane into a passenger jet carrying more than 100 people.
Ford landed his single-engine Aviat Husky on the wrong runway at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, and narrowly avoided a collision with a packed Boeng 737, managing to fly over it and come to rest on a nearby taxiway.
Overnight, TMZ published the audio of Ford’s air traffic control call, from approximately 18 minutes before the incident, as he took off from nearby Santa Monica Airport.
In it, the 74-year-old actor stutters and sounds confused, and at one point, mistakenly identifies his plane as a helicopter.
“I’m an LA Helicopter, sorry, LA Heli – helicopter, sorry Husky Eight Niner Hotel Uniform,” he can be heard saying, before the controller reminds him that he’s on the wrong frequency and should be communicating with a different tower.
TMZ spoke to pilots who said that there are common errors and are not a cause for concern by themselves, but given Ford’s dangerous landing and a previous crash-landing in 2015, the US Federal Aviation Administration plans to investigate.
The Star Wars actor could be issued a warning or have his license suspended, but the FAA is currently backlogged with investigations, meaning that he will be free to fly for the foreseeable future.
Source: TMZ.
Photo: Dave J Hogan / Getty.
