FAA Investigating Harrison Ford After Landing on Taxiway & Nearly Hitting Commercial Flight

FAA Investigating Harrison Ford After Landing on Taxiway & Nearly Hitting Commercial Flightt

It’s hard not to love Harrison Ford.  He’s a pretty awesome guy, and to top it all off, he’s a pilot who’s logged a good many hours of flight time.  However, it looks like there was an incident on Monday when he was landing at John Wayne Airport in California.  Apparently, the actor landed on a taxiway and then came awfully close to an American Airlines flight that was preparing for takeoff on its way to Dallas, Texas.

According to NBC News:

Ford, an experienced pilot who collects vintage planes, had been instructed to land on runway 20-L at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, but mistakenly aimed for a taxiway, instead. His plane passed over the top of an American Airlines 737 carrying 110 passengers and a six-person crew.

The passenger plane, AA flight 1546, managed to depart safely for Dallas just minutes after the incident.

Ford, 74, was heard on air traffic control recordings asking, “Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?”

Air traffic controllers then informed Ford that he had landed on a taxiway rather than the runway — a violation of Federal Aviation Administration safety rules.

The FAA told NBC News that controllers gave Ford the proper landing instructions and that he read them back.

This is not the first close encounter for Ford.  A couple of years ago, he was forced to land his plane on a golf course and sustained some pretty heavy injuries from the incident.

Hopefully all turns out well for Ford.  There are a number of possible penalties the FAA can level against him, including fines or a suspension/revocation of his pilot’s license.  Thankfully, nothing happened to the commercial aircraft, as this could have been a much more serious issue.