Star Wars actor Carrie Fisher is in a stable condition in hospital after suffering a medical emergency on a London to Los Angeles flight on Friday.

Her brother Todd Fisher told The Associated Press that she was “out of emergency” and stabilised at a Los Angeles hospital.

He said he could not discuss any other details about what happened.

Fisher (60), who has been on a tour promoting a new memoir, is best known for her role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy.

No representatives for the performer were immediately available to comment.

The Los Angeles Times, citing emergency officials, had reported that Fisher suffered a “cardiac episode” during the flight and was rushed to a hospital in a critical condition after landing.

The celebrity news website TMZ.com and other news outlets also reported that Fisher suffered a heart attack on the plane before its arrival at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman confirmed that emergency medical personnel met an arriving flight at the airport to treat a patient in “cardiac arrest”, rendering “immediate advanced life support” to the patient before the individual was taken to a hospital.

However, the spokesman declined to provide any information about the identity, age or gender of the patient, or other circumstances, citing medical confidentiality laws.

TMZ said the medical emergency occurred about 15 minutes before the plane landed at the airport, and that an emergency medical technician who was on board came up to the first-class cabin to render assistance to the actor and writer.

United Airlines issued a statement saying that Flight 935 from London to Los Angeles was met on the ground by medical personnel after the crew reported that a passenger was “unresponsive”.

The airline did not name the stricken passenger.

Twitter

Twitter messages posted by well-known YouTube performer Anna Akana, who was a passenger on the flight, said Fisher had “stopped breathing” after falling ill aboard the plane.

Comedian Brad Cage, in another tweet, said he and Akana were sitting across from Fisher and that she was taken off the plane by paramedics.

The Los Angeles Times account cited one source as describing the actor as having been “in a lot of distress on the flight”.

Reuters