clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Watch video of Harrison Ford’s near miss with a passenger jet

Chewie, get us out of here!

“Jock! There’s a big snake in here!” Lucasfilm/Paramount Pictures

Footage has surfaced from a near-miss last week involving a passenger jet and a single-engine plane flown by Harrison Ford

In the video, shown on network news early this morning, Ford's Aviat Husky passes over a Boeing 737 with 116 persons aboard at the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif. He then lands on the taxiway. The incident happened on the afternoon of Feb. 13.

"Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?" Ford is reported to have asked air traffic controllers, who had properly given him landing instructions that he had read back. Ford was directed to runway 20-L at the airport, but mistook a taxiway for his landing strip. The taxiway runs parallel to that runway.

As comical as it may seem when the pilot of the Millennium Falcon is involved in an aviation incident with no injuries, Ford could be in some serious trouble.

The incident is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and could lead to sanctions against Ford, 74. The actor could get anything from a reprimand to a suspension of his pilot's license. Landing on a taxiway is a violation of FAA safety regulations, but at least it's not entering another planet's atmosphere while under hyperdrive.

Ford is a collector of vintage aircraft but, as NBC News notes, he has been involved in at least three other aviation incidents since 1999, most notably in 2015 when he crashed a World War II era fighter plane on a golf course in Santa Monica, Calif. after its engine failed.

The 737 involved in this near-miss, operated by American Airlines, safely departed for Dallas minutes after the flyby.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Patch Notes

A weekly roundup of the best things from Polygon