Harrison Ford injured in plane crash.

US actor Harrison Ford has been injured in a small plane crash in Los Angeles.

The 72-year-old, star of the Indiana Jones and Star Wars films, reported engine failure and crash-landed his vintage plane on a Venice golf course.

He was breathing and alert when medics arrived and took him to hospital in a “fair to moderate” condition, a fire department spokesman said.

His son Ben, a chef in Los Angeles, later tweeted from the hospital: “Dad is OK. Battered but OK!

His publicist said: “The injuries sustained are not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery,”

The nature of Ford’s injuries have not been disclosed but website TMZ, which first reported the story, said he suffered “multiple gashes to his head”.

Shortly after take-off from Santa Monica Airport, he said he was having engine failure with his 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR and was making an “immediate return”.

He was unable to reach the runway and landed on the golf course.

“There was no explosion or anything. It just sounded like a car hitting the ground or a tree or something. Like that one little bang, and that was it,” Jeff Kuprycz, who was playing golf told the Associated Press news agency.

“He ended up crashing around the eighth hole.”

Christian Fry of the Santa Monica Airport Association said it was “an absolutely beautifully executed emergency landing by an unbelievably well-trained pilot”.

Mr Ford was the only person on board the plane.