Production company pleads guilty to health and safety breaches which ‘could have killed’ Harrison Ford when he was crushed by Millennium Falcon door on set of Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The 74-year-old was flown to hospital after he injured his ankle on the famous spacecraft
A FILM production company has admitted health and safety breaches after the door of the Millennium Falcon collapsed, crushing Hollywood star Harrison Ford.
The court heard Ford could have been killed by the heavy hydraulic door when it slammed shut as he walked through it, pinning him to the ground during rehearsals.
It occurred when was rehearsing during shooting for Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire on June 12, 2014, a court heard.
He was reprising his role as Han Solo when he was hit by the door, which had been designed to mimic the action of a door on the original set.
The power of the metal-framed door meant he was hit with a force comparable to the weight of a small car.
Foodles Production (UK) Ltd, which is owned by Disney, admitted two breaches under health and safety law.
Prosecuting at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court, Andrew Marshall said that Ford had gone through the door with another actor and hit a button.
He said the door was a "a swivelling vertical door created to mimic the Millennium Falcon which closed by some force and was controlled remotely by staff".
"The actor Harrison Ford went through with another actor, hit a door button and started to walk back through the door thinking the set was not live.
"But the door was remotely operated and the came down hitting Ford in the pelvic area, knocking him to the ground and pinning him to the ground.
"He was severely injured. Looking at the guidelines it is clearly high culpability because there was a high risk. It could have killed somebody. The fact it didn't was because an emergency stop was activated."
Ford himself talked about the incident during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show before Christmas.
He said in the original film a door would have been closed with a pulley and a stage hand.
"But now we had lots of money and technology and so they built a f****** great hydraulic door which closed at light speed," he said.
Ford played Han Solo in the Star Wars trilogy that hit cinema screens between 1977 and 1983.
Alongside Carrie Fisher who played Princess Leia and Mark Hamill who played Luke Skywalker, he reprised his role for the franchise's seventh and latest film, The Force Awakens.
He underwent surgery for a broken leg after being airlifted to the trauma unit at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford at the time.
His wife and actress Calista Flockhart, best known for her the sitcom Ally McBeal, flew from the US to be at her husband's bedside.
The charges allege Foodles Production (UK) Ltd failed in the design and manufacture of the hydraulic equipment on the Millennium Falcon set.
They also accused the company of failing to carry out a risk assessment for actors using the equipment and not preventing actors accessing dangerous areas of the set.
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