Harrison Ford Cleared To Keep Flying

17

Harrison Ford has completed a “remedial runway incursion training course” and has been cleared to continue flying after an incident at Hawthorne Airport in Los Angeles. After being told to hold short for an aircraft on short final by a controller, the 78-year-old actor crossed the airport’s only runway. When busted by the obviously irritated controller, Ford immediately apologized and said he’d misunderstood the controller. “The FAA required the pilot to take a remedial runway incursion training course. When the pilot successfully completed the course, the FAA closed the case with no additional action,” the agency said in a statement.

It was Ford’s second major goof in two years. In 2017 he landed his Aviat Husky on a taxiway at John Wayne Airport and he also immediately took responsibility for that, telling an FAA official that he was “the schmuck who landed on the taxiway” when he called the tower after the incident. In that case he actually flew over a Boeing 737 holding short of the runway. He took  “awareness training” for that mishap and was cleared to fly.

Russ Niles
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

Other AVwebflash Articles

17 COMMENTS

    • Seems obvious “how”.
      Shows that if you are HONEST and exhibit a good attitude (vs being a right wing anti-Fed Qanon psycho cursing and confrontational when corrected) you can avoid prosecution and/or revocation…. and this would also apply even to non-celebrities.

      Unfortunately there is also the case of looneytunes Sen Inhofe (R-OK since ’94) who can use his position to not just defy the FAA after deliberately overflying a construction crew and landing on a closed runway but get the regs changed to ensure more incompetents escape even remedial training, much less prosecution and revocation for such blatant recklessness. His defense? “My frequent flights across Oklahoma make it impractical for me to check for NOTAMs on every small airport I use.”. AOPA’s Godfather. They even screwed up BasicMed for most of us to keep him happy.

      • I’ll second that. I can also add that I once made a stupid error (I won’t get into details, but it wasn’t a safety of flight issue even though it did technically bust a reg) and owned up to it and corrected it immediately, and in that case didn’t hear from the FAA again.

        Though to Inhofe’s credit, the NOTAM system *is* a mess, and it can be like finding a needle in a haystack for the one pertinent NOTAM that will affect you. Especially now with all the “T”FRs and DC SFRA/FRZ. 95% of those NOTAMS are boilerplate “observe this or be busted” nonsense that doesn’t actually provide you with the specifics, but good luck finding the specifics in all of the word spaghetti. And some of the changes he helped push through does help encourage pilots to own up to their errors instead of hiding them for fear of a heavy-handed remediation. But yes, as far as his aviating skills go, at least his decision making can be found to be a bit lacking.

      • Actually what it shows me is if you’re a whackjob lefty liberal from BLM and ANTIFA, with money you can get out of most anything. Ask Bill and Hillary. Ask those lefty parents that paid off colleges to ignore students that really earned the rights to go to those schools.They’ll back me up….
        It was Ford’s second MAJOR goof in two years. He also crashed on a golf course. Nice try Gary B. The rest of the country is coming around to this nonsense. You bring politics into this and you’ll get crushed.

        • Sorry Gary B. that was directed to Wise O. I’m sure he’ll forgive me because I was “nice” about the apology.

          • I forgive you. And I also agree with you. Wise O. has obviously spent too much time watching CNN or MSNBC. Ford has been good for aviation. Only because we live in a society that puts credibility in someone’s ability to play act. If you watch real interviews with him today, he’s not all there. He seems lost as he also was during these 2 cases. I don’t agree with his politics but, that’s ok. What’s not ok is him using his “play acting” fame to get imbeciles to follow his ideology.
            And one mistake doesn’t make a bad pilot. But he’s had 2 of these runway incursions at heavily used commercial airports that utilize ATC and he still messed up. Lives were endangered at both of these. Right or Left doesn’t matter here. But it’s obvious he was treated differently than others because of his perceived importance. My advice to Wise O? Wise Up.

      • When I had a fluke stroke in 2014 I rang the closest office and the guy swore when I told him. He talked me through the process and they’ve been super helpful since.

        As for the political baiting and biting. Lol. Go fly a plane. Or get laid. Do some serious exercise at the very least.

  1. Time to take grandpa’s keys away before he really hurts someone. These are just the most recent in a litany of “mishaps” in his aviation background, and how he hasn’t killed himself and others is a miracle.

    Any time I hear one of his registrations in the pattern, I’ll be sure to extend my downwind just a little longer…

  2. He crossed the far end of a runway while an aircraft was on final.
    Jimmy C mentioned “life threatening” – really?

  3. So here we have a report of a pilot who has gotten a talking-to by the FAA, and has completed his rightfully assigned penance, and we’re told the FAA is satisfied. Then someone from the left chimes in with a political spin to the whole thing. Everybody else seems to be able to get on with their lives but with these people it’s always “I lost my keys! DAMN— THAT— TRUMP!!!!”

    • Just ignore the political comments and respond to the aviation-specific ones.

      On the one hand, being a celebrity, the FAA could have chosen to make an example out of Ford. On the other hand, his contributions to aviation and AOPA have been noteworthy, so maybe someone at the FAA was afraid Inhofe or someone else may have come to his defense.

      And it doesn’t matter if there was an (R) or (D) after Inhofe’s name; the fact is, he was in a position to affect change at the FAA and did so, and while the outcome wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t all bad. But that might have been enough to worry the FAA had they come down too hard on Ford. I image we’d be talking about it just the same if he had lost his license as a result, and someone (or someones) would still inject pointless political commentary into it.

  4. 78 years and decades of drug use and a head injury has obviously taken its toll on his cognitive skills. My advice for him is to stay out of congested airspace and busy airports because he has demonstrated an increased inability to think quickly and to make sound judgement decisions in these situations.

  5. As a physician when I see the more recent interviews with Ford it is apparent to me he is impaired. Whether it’s dementia or drugs I couldn’t speculate but now is certainly the time for him to give up flying completely and forever. Quit on a high note before there is a bad outcome. He’s been fortunate so far.

    • They’re clearly using the opportunity to send a message about fessing up. When I had cause to look into the successful appeals against medical and other groundings, I was amazed by some of the people who got to keep flying. Ford is just a bumbling fool by comparison. If he’s smart he’ll hang up the headset though. It’s the ultimate airmanship.

LEAVE A REPLY