Harrison Ford Says He's a 'Lucky Guy' To Have Survived 'Star Wars' Accident and Plane Crash

The Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor explains in detail how he survived the accident on set which came just three months after a near-fatal plane crash

Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty

He might be the biggest star of the Star Wars galaxy but it’s been a bumpy year for Harrison Ford, who explains for the first time exactly what happened during the “dramatic” on set incident, which left him with a another broken leg.

“I was just standing in the doorway talking to J.J. Abrams, our director,” Ford reminisces on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show which airs Saturday.

“Somebody said, ‘Oh I wonder what this is?’ And the door came down and hit me on my left hip because I was turned to my right,” he said. “Then it flung my left leg up and it dislocated my ankle and as it drove me down to the floor, my legs slapped on the ramp up to the millennium falcon and broke both bones in my left leg.”

Although the accident on the Star Wars: The Force Awakens set was caused by a co-worker – he claims “I don’t know and I don’t want to know” who was responsible – he doubts such an injury would have even been possible when filming the 1977 classic Star Wars.

“In the original film, the door if there had been a door, would have been closed with a pulley and a stage hand just closing it,” he explained. “But now we had lots of money and technology and so they built a f—— great hydraulic door which closed at light speed.”

The incident which left Ford, 73, in rehab for several weeks, came just three months after the actor and avid pilot experienced a near-fatal crash in his World War II vintage plane. After having to make an emergency landing, Ford suffered a shattered right ankle, a shattered pelvis, a broken back and a serious bump on the head.

“The left leg was in the door and the right leg was in the aeroplane crash,” he said.

But it turns out, Ford wasn’t the only one who suffered an injury while on set. The actor revealed that Abrams actually sustained his own injuries – a stress fracture on his back, whilst trying to save him during the June on-set accident.

“It was, might I say, dramatic because I was pinned to the floor by the hydraulic door – they have a valve that flops once they go to the end of their throw and then they can be retracted but in this case not so much.”

But for Ford, he’s just grateful to still be around to tell the tale.

“It turned out well – I count myself as a lucky guy,” he said.

And he has no plans to stop taking to the skies with wife, Calista Flockhart any time soon.

“My wife, who is a wonderful lady, understands my passion for aviation, she understands what it means to me and flies with me to this day.”