Actor Harrison Ford, who had quite a scare when his small plane crashed into a golf course in Los Angeles on Thursday, an accident in which he was slightly injured, is one of the many stars of Hollywood’s aviation buffs.
Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt or John Travolta are among the idols of the big screen with a pilot’s license.
There are also Michael Dorn, Edward Norton, Kurt Russell and Hilary Swank, who learned to fly while filming a biopic about aviator Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane.
“There are a large number of people in Hollywood who fly for work and for pleasure,” said Thomas Haines of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).
Harrison Ford, 72, suffered head injuries when his open-cockpit PT-22 Recruit, painted in US Air Force colors, crashed on a golf course.
He was trying to return to Santa Monica Airport after telling air traffic controllers that his engine had stopped working.
“Dad is fine. Shocked but OK!” his son Ben tweeted. As for his agent, he assured that the Indiana Jones star should make a full recovery.
On social networks, fans recalled a cult scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusadewhere the reckless archaeologist and his reluctant father squeeze into an open-cockpit biplane.
“I didn’t know you could fly a plane,” marveled Henry Jones, Sr., played by Sean Connery, the tweed-wearing father to his adventurous son.
“Pilot, yes! Down, no!” Indiana Jones replied.
In real life, Harrison Ford is known in the industry as a daredevil pilot who owns an impressive amount of aircraft.
“In My Blood”
His personal collection includes Aviat Husky and De Havilland Beaver bush planes (which allow for rough terrain landings), a Cessna Sovereign business jet, a Bell 407 helicopter, as well as Ryan biplanes and a Waco Taperwing.
“I work as an actor to support my airplane addiction,” said Ford, one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors.
Mr. Haines has flown several times with Harrison Ford, also an AOPA member, who has testified numerous times before the US Congress and asserted his support for small airports.
Hollywood’s close association with aviation dates back to its heyday, when big names like Cecil B. DeMille and Charlie Chaplin had their own airports.
In contemporary Hollywood, John Travolta owns several planes, including a Boeing 707, which he keeps near his home in Florida at a private airport.
“I was five years old when I fell in love with aviation,” the New Jersey-born actor once said. “It’s in my blood. I can’t get rid of it.”
Angelina Jolie began taking flying lessons in 2004, then bought herself the Cirrus SR-22 passenger plane, known for its parachute located in the cockpit. She recently made a film about a famous World War II aviator.
Last year her famous husband Brad Pitt, perhaps inspired by his last World War II film Furyreportedly spent $3.3 million on the ultimate toy: a legendary Spitfire fighter jet.
If this information turns out to be correct, he may invite his co-star Tom Cruise for a round of dogfights: the star of Top gun and to Mission Impossible owns, among other things, a P-51 Mustang fighter plane, in which we can read Kiss me, Katein red letters.
Tom Cruise admitted to People magazine in 2003 that he was crazy about aviation as a child, but only learned to fly in the early 1990s after overcoming dyslexia.