Plane Crash on Set of Tom Cruise Movie Leaves 2 Dead, 1 Injured

The small aircraft belonged to the crew working on Tom Cruise's new movie Mena, reports confirm

Photo: Courtesy Alan Purwin

A small plane that was being used by the crew on set of the Tom Cruise movie Mena in Colombia has crashed, leaving two people dead and a third seriously injured, multiple reports confirm.

The aircraft crashed in the Colombian Andes on Friday. Cruise – who is a trained pilot – was not on the aircraft at the time, The Associated Press reports.

Variety reports that the two people killed have been identified as American Alan David Purwin, a Hollywood pilot, and Colombian Carlos Berl. Another pilot, American Jimmy Lee Garind has been rushed to hospital in Medellin with serious injuries.

Cruise, 53, arrived in Colombia last month to start work on the movie, which depicts the story of a pilot who worked for the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Purwin had shared photos from the set, including shots of himself hanging out with Cruise and the rest of the cast.

Before his death, Purwin had shared a photo of planes landing on a dirt runway earlier this week. He captioned the photo, “#lovemyjob.”

According to the AP, the twin-engine Aerostar ran into bad weather late Friday afternoon after taking off from Santa Fe de Antioquia, heading for a quick flight to Medellin.

A spokesperson for Mena‘s distributor, Universal, released a statement after the crash.

“An aircraft carrying crew members crashed while returning to Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellin following production wrap on the film Mena resulting in two fatalities,” the statement reads. “Further details are not available at this time. On behalf of the production, our hearts and prayers go out to the crew members and their families at this difficult time.”

• With reporting by SAMANTHA MILLER