Flying allows “great freedom”, Harrison Ford once said, describing his passion for piloting aeroplanes.
Ironically the now wealthy star had to quit flying lessons while he was at college because he could not afford the $15-an hour payment. However, after his film career flourished, he was able to gain his licence and has since bought a number of aircraft.
“One of the things I like best about flying, I guess, is that when I’m up here I’m Beaver November 280 or Helicopter 35 Lima – another pilot, another aeroplane, not a movie actor,” he said in the 2002 documentary Harrison Ford: Just Another Pilot.
“Up here I don’t think about much except flying. I know what my duties and responsibilities are and everything else just kind of falls away. That’s very restful for me.”
Recalling his first solo flight, Ford, who is married to Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart, said his landing was “ugly”.
“[I] did that terrible thing you can do in a [Cessna] 206 and let the nose wheel bounce and, boy... I went porpoising down the runway like nothing I’d ever seen.”
He added: “It was ugly. Poor Terry Bender [flight instructor]. There was nothing he could do. I’m sure I scared the bejesus out of him.”
Ford, who also has a licence to fly helicopters, has incorporated his love for flying into his films, including Six Days Seven Nights.
The latest crash is not his first. In 1999 he was on a helicopter training flight when he crash-landed in Los Angeles, but both he and the instructor escaped unhurt.
A year later he had to make an emergency landing in Nebraska in windy conditions, but again he was unhurt.
Away from flying, Ford suffered a broken leg less than a year ago on the set of Star Wars: Episode VII at Pinewood Studios. While police at the time said the incident involved a garage door, there were suggestions it was the door of Solo’s Millennium Falcon spacecraft.
Ford said he likes to challenge himself when it comes to flying, but added: “I always make sure I don’t over-challenge myself, I’ve had a lot of good people look after me and help keep me safe.”