Indian American Surgeon Helps Rescue Harrison Ford After Plane Crash

An Indian American spine surgeon came to the rescue of Harrison Ford of “Star Wars” fame March 5, when the actor crash-landed his World War II-era airplane after losing engine power, suffering serious but not life-threatening injuries.

An Indian American spine surgeon came to the rescue of Harrison Ford of “Star Wars” fame March 5, when the actor crash-landed his World War II-era airplane after losing engine power, suffering serious but not life-threatening injuries. Ford used his years of piloting prowess to bring down the plane on a golf course and avoid nearby homes in what one expert called a beautifully executed maneuver, reported AP.

Sanjay Khurana was playing golf that day when the single-engine plane crashed on the course.

Operating on instinct, reported ABC News, Khurana ran to the scene to ensure the pilot was safe.

“He was stunned a bit,” Khurana told ABC News. “He was moaning and in pain.”

Khurana says he quickly recognized the famous pilot.

“It was obvious by his face, it was Harrison Ford. I’m old enough, or young enough, to have watched all his ‘Star Wars’ films. So, it was obvious,” Khurana told ABC News.

A group of golfers helped extract Ford from the plane and worked to stabilize his spine and neck. Khurana checked the man’s blood pressure and his airway, ensuring that he would be OK.

Ford, 72, was later hospitalized in “fair to moderate” condition, said Patrick Butler of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Hours after the crash, Khurana remained surprised by what occurred.

“You don’t go golfing expecting to see an airplane crash and to help extract someone and realize it’s someone you know from the movies, right? It’s fairly bizarre,” he said.

“But as a surgeon, I’ve been practicing for almost over a decade now, you deal with urgent situations. So you have to do your best for someone in distress,” he told ABC News.

According to his bio on DISC Sports & Spine Center in Marina del Rey Calif., Khurana is a board certified adult and pediatric spine care specialist. After earning his B.A. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of California at Berkeley, he received his medical degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he also completed a general surgery internship and an orthopedic surgery residency.

His area of expertise lies in spinal reconstruction, cervical spine surgery, minimally invasive microsurgery, adult and pediatric scoliosis, spine trauma and tumors, and the evaluation and treatment of patients with multiple failed previous surgeries.

AP adds: It was the latest and most serious in a series of crashes and close calls for the 72-year-old action-adventure A-lister, who like his “Star Wars” alter-ego Han Solo has a taste for aerial thrills.

Ford’s publicist Ina Treciokas said in a statement that Ford had no other choice but to make an emergency landing. She said his injuries “are not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery.”

Ford took off from the airport at 2 p.m. About 20 minutes later, he told the tower that he had engine failure and was making an immediate return, according to a recording posted by the website LiveATC.net.

The plane had been flying at about 3,000 feet and hit a tree on the way down, according to witnesses and officials.

The plane, a yellow 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR with stars on its wings, was upright and mostly intact after the crash and came to rest about a quarter-mile short of the runway. No one on the ground was hurt.

“I would say that this is an absolutely beautifully executed — what we would call — a forced or emergency landing, by an unbelievably well-trained pilot,” said Christian Fry of the Santa Monica Airport Association.

Charlie Thomson, a flight instructor at the airport who saw Ford take off, said engine failure like Ford’s does not make the plane harder to maneuver. “It just means you have to go down,” he said.

Ford had a cut to his forehead and scraped arms, but it wasn’t clear what internal injuries he may have had, Los Angeles Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Butler said. “He wasn’t a bloody mess. He was alert. He had good vitals,” Butler said.

The bystanders pulled him from the plane because they were afraid it might explode or catch fire, Butler said.

“The engine gave a little sputter” and died, he said.

Ford is cast to play the swashbuckling Solo in his fourth “Star Wars” movie, set for release in December. The original “Star Wars” in 1977 made Ford an overnight star who later played whip-slinging archaeologist Indiana Jones in four hugely popular movies.

Shooting on “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was shut down for several weeks last July after Ford broke his leg during filming at the Pinewood Studios outside London. The accident involved the spacecraft door of the Millennium Falcon, which makes a return in the highly anticipated film.

Ford got his pilot’s license in the 1990s and has made headlines with his flying before, though he had never been significantly injured doing it. In 2001, he rescued a missing Boy Scout with his helicopter. Nearly a year before, he rescued an ailing mountain climber in Jackson, Wyoming.

In 2000 in Lincoln, Nebraska, a gust of wind sent a six-seat plane Ford was piloting off the runway. He and his passenger were not injured.

He has also volunteered his services during forest-fire season, when rescue helicopters are busy fighting blazes.

The actor has said his rescues “had nothing to do with heroism.”

“It had to do with flying a helicopter. That’s all,” he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash in a process that could take up to a year before a final report. NTSB investigator Patrick Jones said “we’re going to look at everything: weather, man, the machine.”

This story originally appeared in India West.