Who can blame her! Harrison Ford says wife Calista Flockhart REFUSES to fly with him in vintage planes after his near-death crash
Harrison Ford has revealed his wife Calista Flockhart refuses to fly with him in vintage planes anymore – after his near-death crash in 2015.
The iconic actor, 80, who suffered a broken arm and head injuries after crash landing a World War II-era airplane into a Santa Monica golf course – said the accident was ‘really hard’ on his family, leading to 58-year-old Flockhart’s decision.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘My wife does not fly with me in vintage airplanes anymore — she will in others.
‘I certainly don’t want to have to recover from that kind of accident again. It was really hard on my family and it was hard on me. I went back to flying. I know what happened. So that’s part of the reason [I went back].
‘There was a mechanical issue with the airplane I could not have known about or attended to in any way. So in the words of the great philosopher Jimmy Buffett: S**t happens.
Not again: Harrison Ford has revealed his wife Calista Flockhart refuses to fly with him in vintage planes anymore – after his near-death crash in 2015 (pictured December 2022)
He has been married to Flockhart since 2010 and the pair share son Liam, 22. Harrison is also father to four other children from his previous two marriages.
Ford, a vintage plane collector, has been involved in a number of crashes over the years.
Most famously, in 2015 he crash-landed an airplane after the engine failed. The aircraft plummeted into a golf course during the crash in which Ford suffered head injuries and a broken arm.
But Ford was actually 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.
He said he was not going to be able to make the runaway at Santa Monica Airport so he picked a long green at the nearby Penmar golf course to land out of the way of the congested neighborhood.
After plunging 3,000ft and hitting a tree on the way down, Ford was rushed from the scene bleeding heavily from a head wound.
In 2017 he almost crashed his single-engine Husky plane into a Boeing 737.
The actor had been instructed to land on runway 20-L at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California.
Crashl: The actor, 80, who suffered a broken arm and head injuries after crash landing a World War II-era airplane into a Santa Monica golf course – said the accident was ‘really hard’ on his family, leading to 58-year-old Flockhart’s decision (Ford’s crashed plane pictured in 2015)
Aviator: ‘I certainly don’t want to have to recover from that kind of accident again. It was really hard on my family and it was hard on me. I went back to flying. I know what happened. So that’s part of the reason [I went back] (pictured 2001)
But the star 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.
The Federal Aviation Administration say 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.
The American Airlines flight 1546 was still able to take off for Dallas just minutes after the incident, NBC News reports.
And in April 2020, at the Los Angeles Hawthorne Airport while piloting his Husky, Ford crossed a runway where another aircraft was landing.
Happy couple: Harrison and Calista are pictured at the 2015 Golden Globes
According to the FAA, the two planes were about 3,600 feet from each other and there was no danger of a crash. A representative of Ford later said that he ‘misheard’ an instruction given to him by air traffic control.
He discovered a passion for flying somewhat late in life but Ford embraced it with gusto and flew his collection of planes as much as he drove his collection of vintage cars.
The actor was 52 when he started taking flying lessons and over the years the Indiana Jones star has amassed an impressive aviation collection.
In an interview with The Mail On Sunday back in 2010, the Blade Runner and Star Wars actor talked about some of the planes in his collection and the reasons he loves flying so much.
‘Flying is like good music: it elevates the spirit and it’s an exhilarating freedom.’ he said. ‘It’s not a thrill thing or an adrenaline rush; it’s engaging in a process that takes focus and commitment.
Ford has a long range jet, a Citation Sovereign, a turboprop aircraft capable of operating on unimproved airstrips; and a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver single engine bush plane.
He also has a 1929 Waco Taperwing open-top biplane, an Aviat Husky, which is a two-seat fabric-covered bush plane, and a Bell 407 helicopter.
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.
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.
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.
On Thursday, the actor’s vintage plane crash-landed on a golf course in Los Angeles shortly after taking off from a nearby airport. Ford who had reported engine failure to air-traffic controllers, suffered moderate injuries and was taken by ambulance to a hospital.
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.
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.
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