Spinal surgeon Sanjay Khurana says Harrison Ford “was moaning and in pain” when he reached the actor’s WWII-era plane that crash landed at a golf course in Venice, Calif. on Thursday.
“He was stunned a bit,” Khurana, who was one of the first responders to the accident, added during an interview with “Good Morning America” on Friday.
“You don’t go golfing expecting to see an airplane crash and to help extract someone and realize it’s someone you know from the movies, right? It’s fairly bizarre,” Khurana said. “But as a surgeon, I’ve been practicing for almost over a decade now, you deal with urgent situations. So you have to do your best for someone in distress.”
Despite being taken aback after recognizing the 72-year-old actor, Khurana said he tried to get Ford “out of the plane in a semi-urgent manner because the fuel was leaking.”
Luckily, the plane did not catch fire after the crash. Khurana and other first responders stabilized Ford’s neck and checked his breathing. Ford was able to walk away from the crash, but suffered wounds to his head and face.
Paramedics arrived quickly and transported Ford to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Ford, an avid aviator, had just taken off from nearby Santa Monica Airport and requested a return before the aircraft crashed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Watch Khurana’s interview here.