‘That’s How People Die’: Experts Explain How Harrison Ford Escaped Death In Jet Crash
Harrison Ford’s 2015 plane crash almost cost him his life. And while investigators have tried to understand exactly what caused the jet malfunction and what the actor did to survive, Ford suffered amnesia after the collision, and is unable to recall the events leading up to the near-fatal incident.
“He’s over Los Angeles. He’s over the heart of Los Angeles, but there’s a golf fairway ahead of him, thank god. In that instant, he has an option, a good option, and so he heads for it,” explains aviation expert, Jeff Wise, in a teaser for REELZ’s new docuseries, Collision Course: Harrison Ford.
As RadarOnline.com readers know, Ford, 76, had to crash land on a nearby golf course when his vintage WW2 plane began failing. Thankfully, a spine surgeon who was golfing thee at the time was able to reach him after the brutal crash and keep him stable until paramedics arrived.
“He probably at some point realized he’s not going to be able to make it to the airport, and so the golf course is in front of him,” says another aviation expert, Capt. Ross Aimer, in the clip.
“Looking at it from a perspective of ‘What exactly did he do?’ We don’t really know. He might have stalled it,” continues Wise.
Ford is now doing well, but is still unable to recall exactly what happened before his jet crashed.
“Now there’s an instinctive reaction if you’re coming in to pull back on the stick… to try to extend the glide. It sounds like a good thing but it’s actually a bad thing because if you try to raise your nose, try to eke out a little bit more distance, what you’re actually doing is bleeding away air speed and if you get past a critical point, boom! You lose all your lift and you fall out of the sky, and that’s how people die,” says Wise.
Collision Course: Harrison Ford airs Sunday, September 16 at 10 ET / PT on REELZ.
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