"Indiana Jones" star Harrison Ford was critically injured Thursday when his small plane crash-landed on a golf course outside Los Angeles, media reports and officials said.

The 72-year-old suffered multiple gashes to his head and was left bleeding after the crash of a vintage two-seater plane, according to the TMZ celebrity website, publishing a picture of the downed plane, its nose cone ripped open.

A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman, who did not identify Harrison, said the pilot of a single-engine plane was critically injured in the crash.

"We cannot disclose any of our patients' names," spokesman Erik Scott told AFP, recounting the early afternoon crash at the Penmar Golf Course in Venice, southwest of Los Angeles.

"When we arrived on scene we had a small aircraft that was down on Penmar Golf Course, near the Santa Monica airport. We had a solo occupant, an adult male, who was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.

"Fortunately noone (else) was injured and the NTSB will perform an investigation," he said, referring to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The KTLA television station cited witnesses as saying Ford was helped out of the plane, and that he could use his legs.

It showed video footage of the plane, which gashed a stretch of grass on the golf course before coming to a halt the right way up.

No more details were immediately available.

Last June Ford broke his leg on the set of the new "Star Wars" movie at Pinewood Studios outside London. Filming began in May last year on the new episode of the iconic franchise, directed by blockbuster filmmaker J.J. Abrams.

Ford is back as smuggler Han Solo, Mark Hamill will return as Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and Carrie Fisher, 57, reprises the role of Princess Leia.