A small plane that was being used in the production of Tom Cruise’s new movie “Mena” crashed in Colombia on Friday, killing two crew members and sending a third to the hospital, according to reports in US and Colombian media.
Reuters, quoting American celebrity gossip website TMZ, on Saturday said two American pilots and a Colombian citizen were on board, but authorities were still determining who had died.
TMZ said Cruise was not involved in the crash.
The twin-engine plane went down in San Pedro de los Milagros, near Medellin, on Friday evening, the Colombian civilian aviation authority said in a statement to Spanish language news broadcaster NTN24.
The cause of the crash was not yet known but TMZ said there were reports of bad weather in the area.
However, pilot Alan D Purwin was one of the people killed, said Helinet Aviation executive Jack Snyder, reported IANS quoting CNN.
Helinet Aviation owns the plane.
It said Purwin endowed Hollywood movies and TV series with sweeping aerial footage as a pilot carrying camera teams since working on the production of “Airwolf” in 1984.
He also appeared in cameo roles as a pilot in many productions including “Jurassic World”, “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Indecent Proposal”.
Tom Cruise’s “Mena” is about a former American airline pilot who became a drug smuggler during the 1980s and then later worked for the US government.
Cruise’s spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment on the crash.
The crew members had just wrapped up work on the new film “Mena”, production banner Universal Pictures said in a statement.
It read, “On behalf of the production, our hearts and prayers go out to the crew members and their families at this difficult time.”
