Plane Crash On The Set Of New Tom Cruise Movie

A small plane carrying members of the film crew shooting Mena, the latest Tom Cruise movie, crashed Friday night in Colombia, killing two people and leaving a third seriously injured. According to Variety, pilot Alan D. Purwin was killed in the crash, along with Colombian Carlos Berl. Another American pilot, Jimmy Lee Garland, was severely injured and is currently being hospitalized. Cruise, who is a trained pilot, was reportedly not aboard the plane at the time of the crash. The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation, but local authorities believe that bad weather caused the twin-engine plane to crash against Alto de la Clarita mountain. According to a statement from Universal Pictures, the film — which is about an American pilot, played by Cruise, who worked for Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar before he became a spy for the Drug Enforcement Agency — has been shooting in Colombia since late August and just wrapped. The plane was reportedly on its way to the airport. "On behalf of the production, our hearts and prayers go out to the crew members and their families at this difficult time," the statement from Universal Pictures said. Purwin was the founder and president of Los Angeles-based Helinet Technologies and has provided aerial footage for films such as Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean and Pearl Harbor. Most recently, he appeared as a pilot in Jurassic World.