Court hears case of Star Wars set injury to Harrison Ford

Production company pleads guilty to two charges.

by Jennie Kermode

Harrison Ford as Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Harrison Ford as Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Foodles Production (UK) Ltd, a Disney-owned company, today plead guilty to two charges of health and safety violations which, Milton Keynes magistrates court heard, could have killed Harrison Ford.

The case relates to an incident in June 2014 when Ford was on the Millennium Falcon set filming Star Wars: Episode 7 - The Force Awakens. As he walked through a door which was not supposed to be moving, it was remotely operated and hit him, pinning him to the ground and breaking his left leg. He had to be airlifted to hospital but, the court heard, the situation could have been much worse.

"It could have killed somebody," said prosecutor Andrew Marshall. "The fact that it didn’t was because an emergency stop was activated." The Health and Safety Executive said the impact on Ford was like being hit by a small car.

Ford recovered from the incident and completed filming, despite suffering further injuries in an unrelated event the following year, when he the light aircraft he was flying crashed onto a golf course.

Two further charges against Foodles have been dropped.

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