Harrison Ford under investigation after plane's near miss at airport

Harrison Ford is under investigation by US flight authorities after apparently landing his private plane on the wrong part of John Wayne airport in Orange County, California.

The Star Wars actor, a keen amateur aviator, landed his vintage single-engine Aviat Husky on a taxiway rather than a runway, a violation of federal aviation regulations.

The mix-up allegedly led Ford to fly above a Boeing 737 passenger jet waiting to take off.

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A source told the Los Angeles Times the 74-year-old actor asked air traffic controllers: "Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?" as he passed close above the jet.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released an account of the incident, which did not identify Ford by name.

"The pilot correctly read back the clearance," it said. "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 inquiry could result in anything from "a simple warning letter to a suspension of Ford's pilot's license", says NBC News.

This is the fourth time Ford has been involved in an aviation incident.

In 1999, he and his flight instructor walked away unscathed after crashing a helicopter into a dry riverbed while practising emergency landing procedures. A year later, a plane piloted by Ford scraped the runway at Lincoln Municipal Airport in Nebraska.

The most serious incident came in 2015, when Ford broke an arm when crash-landing a vintage plane on to a Santa Monica golf course after experiencing engine trouble shortly after take-off. He was praised for steering the plane away from the densely populated surrounding area.