PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. - A small plane piloted by actor Patrick Swayze crashed Thursday while trying to make an emergency landing on a dirt road in central Arizona, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Swayze was not injured.
Swayze was flying a 1978 twin-engine Cessna 414A from Van Nuys, Calif., to Las Vegas, N.M., when he was forced to attempt an emergency landing, said John Slabes, an FAA spokesman.
FAA monitors who control that airspace lost sight of Swayze's plane on radar at 13,000 feet around 11 a.m. and couldn't contact him by radio.
A witness who saw the plane make the emergency landing called police, said Sgt. P.J. Janik, a spokesman for the Prescott Valley police. The plane apparently sheared off its right wing after hitting a light pole as it was coming down near this town about 90 miles north of Phoenix.
Swayze's spokeswoman Annett Wolf in Los Angeles confirmed Swayze had made an emergency landing and that he was not seriously hurt. She said Swayze has a home in northern New Mexico, but declined further comment.
Slabes said Swayze was the only person aboard the aircraft.
It was not immediately clear what forced the emergency landing, but FAA officials had been told it was a pressurization problem.
Swayze, 47, has starred in several movies, including ''Ghost,'' a hit that cast him alongside Demi Moore, and ''Dirty Dancing,'' the 1987 movie that made him a star.