Strict maintenance rules for vintage planes

Harrison Ford’s crash is the second this week of a World War 2 era planes. We go in-depth with the Palm Springs Air Museum which flies and maintains these types of planes.

Out of the museum’s 46 vintage planes, only 7 are maintained in flying condition. It’s a vigorous process overseen by the FAA that all planes, including Ford’s, have to go through.

“This is a radial engine similar to what he had in his airplane,” said Air Museum Managing Director Dan Bell.

Ford was flying a 1930s era Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR, a popular plane among collectors. As was the blue-and-yellow biplane that crashed near Yucaipa Tuesday.

A plane very similar to this one at the Palm Springs Air Museum this one is actually one of the more easier ones here to fly.

“Thousands of them were built to train pilots for WWII,” said Bell.

Whether it’s a restored WWII original or a brand new plane, all have to undergo strict maintenance and yearly inspections.

“We have to go through the entire airplane, tare it down, make sure everything works,” said Bell.

“Everything that’s related to the aircraft has to be inspected,” said Director of Maintenance Thomas Kruger.

Once the plane is cleared, it’s checked again before it goes up in the air.

“Check the condition of the propeller, make sure nothing is loose,” Kruger showed us. “Then you work your way around the back and you check these. These are the control surfaces, make sure they are securely on. You check the flaps, the landing flaps.”

“If we have anything about the airplane we are not comfortable with, the airplane doesn’t fly,” said Bell.

Ford’s plane would have gone through the same procedures.

“They’ll look at these engines are all certified, they have to be gone over every year they have to be gone over by a certified mechanic they will pull all of the maintenance records on the airplane they will pull everything together,” said Bell.

Bell says Ford’s experience is what made the difference.

“If he didn’t have power, you can only glide for so far,” said Bell. “He really knew what he was doing in the air, he had been flying for a long time. He flew helicopters as well as fixed wing airplane and it looks like he put the airplane down the way that he should have, given with what he had.”

Bell says pilots train for this type of emergency and Ford did everything he was trained to do.