Harrison Ford Plane Crash Due To Carburetor Issue

An airplane sits after crash landing at Penmar Golf Course in Venice California March 5, 2015. Federal safety investigators have concluded that a problem with a carburetor part led to engine failure and the crash of the vintage airplane piloted by actor Harrison Ford in California.

Actor Harrison Ford’s vintage plane probably crashed in March because of a carburetor problem that caused the engine to lose power after taking off from Santa Monica Airport, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report released Thursday. “Subsequently, the airplane struck the top of a tree that was about 65 ft tall, and then impacted the ground in an open area of a golf course”.

“(The pilot) said that he didn’t try an engine restart however maintained an airspeed of 85 miles per hour (137 kph) and initiated a left flip again towards the airport; nevertheless through the strategy he realized that the airplane was… “The pilot did not recall anything further about the accident sequence”. Ford wasn’t able to make it all the way to the airport runway, and instead had to risk a crash when he landed in a clearing on the golf course about 800 feet from the runway.

“The unseated jet would have allowed an increased fuel flow through the main metering orifice, producing an extremely rich fuel-to-air ratio, which would have resulted in the loss of engine power”, according to the NTSB.

Ford, who returns to the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon this December in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, made his first public appearance last month on stage at Comic-Con. The actor’s son Ben tweeted just after the crash that his father was “battered” but OK.

They believe the part loosened over the years stemming from the time when the plane was rebuilt and restored in 1998.

As a result, the report suggested pilots and maintenance personnel take a look at their carburetors, just to be on the safe side.

The two-seat plane, called the PT-22 Recruit when it was used as an Army training aircraft, was intentionally designed to mimic the flight characteristics of larger warplanes.

Investigators also said Ford, who played hot-dogging Millennium Falcon pilot Han Solo in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, was flying with a shoulder restraint system that wasn’t properly anchored and ultimately failed.