Harrison Ford was involved in an incident that could've turned deadly on Monday at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. The private, single-engine plane he was piloting narrowly missed a passenger plane when landing.

According to NBC News, the "Star Wars" actor was instructed to land on a specific runway but aimed for a taxiway instead.

His plane passed over the top of an American Airlines 737 that had 110 passengers and a six-person crew on board. Ford, 74, was caught on the air traffic control recordings saying, "Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?"

The passenger plane departed safely minutes after the incident.

Air traffic controllers informed Ford that he had landed on a taxiway rather than the runway. Landing on a taxiway is a violation of Federal Aviation Administration safety rules.

An FAA spokesperson told Business Insider that air traffic controllers cleared Ford's plane, a single-engine Aviat Husky, "to land on Runway 20L at John Wayne Airport Monday afternoon. The pilot correctly read back the clearance. The pilot then landed on a taxiway that runs parallel to the runway, overflying a Boeing 737 that was holding short of the runway."

The FAA is investigating the incident. Penalties generally range from a warning letter to a license suspension or revocation.

This is not the first incident in the air Ford has experienced. The avid flyer crash-landed a small plane on a golf course near Los Angeles in 2015 and was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries. And in 2000, Ford's six-seater Beechcraft Bonanza had to do an emergency landing at Nebraska's Lincoln Municipal Airport.

A representative for Ford had no comment for this story.

NOW WATCH: Netflix and Marvel just dropped the first 'Iron Fist' trailer — and it looks incredible





More From Business Insider

