Harrison Ford reported an engine failure, turned back toward the airport and struck the top of a tall tree before he ditched his small plane on a Los Angeles golf course last week, federal investigators said on Tuesday.
In a preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board laid out a narrative of the crash, which left the actor injured.
The NTSB said that Ford was operating the plane, a World War II-era training aircraft, under visual flight rules, which meant he was not required to file a flight plan. The plane came to rest about 800 feet from the approach end of a runway at Santa Monica Airport.
The report shed no light on why the engine failed. Ben Ford, the actor’s son, said after the crash that his father was “battered, but OK.”
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