Harrison Ford has been cleared for takeoff.
The Star Wars actor will not be fined, nor will he lose his pilot’s license after he mistakenly flew over a jetliner before landing his plane on an airport taxiway on February 13, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed in a statement Monday.
The 74-year-old star has continued to man the cockpit during the FAA investigation, and was pictured flying his private plane out of the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California, on Friday. Ford, who keeps his collection of planes there, chose to travel in his single-engined Cessna Caravan airliner. Though the plane can carry up to 14 passengers, Ford was seen with only a co-pilot with him.
In February, Ford inadvertently landed on an active taxiway instead of the parallel runway he was cleared for at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. During his landing, he came extremely close to an American Airlines flight with 116 people on board awaiting takeoff.
In a video of the incident, Ford’s yellow single-engine Husky aircraft is seen flying over the American Airlines flight waiting to cross the runway he was cleared for.
The actor was heard making mistakes during radio communication with air traffic control in the minutes leading up to his close call. He responded to the control tower by fumbling his words and telling them that he was flying a helicopter rather than his single-engine plane.
In newly released audio, the actor can be heard taking responsibility for the mistake, telling the tower at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, “I’m the schmuck that landed on the taxiway.”
He added, “I was distracted by the aircraft which was in movement when I turned to the runway and also the big turbulence from the landing.”
“I estimate that [Ford] missed the aircraft by less than 100 feet,” Captain Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines pilot and CEO of Aero Consulting Experts, previously explained to PEOPLE. “He came uncomfortably and dangerously close on that landing — the video is pretty clear.”
Source : people.com
