Harrison Ford Under FAA Investigation: Should He Be Allowed to Fly at 77?
After making an error on the runway, the actor's fitness to fly planes is being questioned
Actor and avid pilot Harrison Ford came under FAA investigation this week, after making an error on the runway at Hawthorne airport in Southern California.
The Indiana Jones actor has been in the process of updating his pilot's license so he can participate in relief efforts—delivering supplies and equipment when there's urgent need. It's a noble goal, but it won't happen if the FAA determines that this latest incident is cause for concern.
Here's what happened: Ford had finished his flight and landed safely, but as he was taxiing his plane an operator gave him an order to "hold short" and allow another plane to pass. Ford apparently misheard the instruction and continued across the path of the other plane. Fortunately he was far enough away that there was no significant danger of a crash, but the operator was understandably upset and practically spat at Ford to "get across that runway now!" adding, "I told you to hold short! You need to listen up."
To a non-pilot the momentary drama of the situation may sound inconsequential. The whole interaction lasted about 10 seconds, no one got hurt, and Ford immediately apologized—"Excuse me, sir. I thought exactly the opposite. I'm terribly sorry"—but in the context of an airport tarmac, it's essential that all pilots be 100% focused, attentive, and responsive to the operators coordinating such delicate and potentially dangerous activity. And you can hear the stakes of the situation in the deferential tone of Ford's apology—he knows he f***ed up.
So this ultimately opens the question of whether Harrison Ford, at age 77, should still be allowed to fly planes. Commercial airline pilots are mandated to retire at age 65, because the stakes of flying are too high to allow any age-related decline to affect their performance. Ford is twelve years past that cut-off and has actually crashed a plane before—you might remember the 2015 golf course crash landing when he broke his arm. At this point, should his license be renewed?
It's a complicated issue. For a start, the plane he crashed in 2015 was a vintage, WWII era aircraft, which is hardly representative of the kind of vehicle he would be flying for the relief effort—and he actually handled that engine failure pretty well. Neither should the standards used for a commercial plane really be considered, because a jetliner obviously involves much higher stakes. The fact that we wouldn't necessarily want Harrison Ford to be in charge of a Sully-style emergency landing on the Hudson river shouldn't determine whether he can fly a small prop-plane to deliver needed supplies during a national emergency, or whether he can use his skills as a helicopter pilot to rescue boy scouts stranded in the wilderness.
Did you know that Harrison Ford has rescued multiple sick/stranded hikers? Obviously his pilot license and his helicopter pilot license are two different issues, but it feels like someone with that kind of dedication to helping people deserves a free pass for one misheard command.
On top of that, if you listen to the audio, the operator's initial command is rushed and legitimately difficult to make out. The fact that Ford is aging may have contributed to the misunderstanding, but it's easy to imagine even a pilot in his prime making the same error, and Ford generally comes across as sharp and alert. While an FAA investigation is warranted in any situation like this, it definitely seems like Ford deserves to be cleared—as he was in a 2017 investigation.
One last note in Ford's defense: He made the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs! He shook Darth Vader off Luke Skywalker's tail in the final assault on the Death Star, and slipped the Millenium Falcon sideways between an exogorth's teeth in the final moments before its massive jaws closed! That kind of piloting doesn't just go away, and no amount of differentiating between fantasy and reality can convince me otherwise.