A tragic plane crash in Medellin, Colombia has killed two and seriously injured one, during a shoot of Tom Cruise’s new movie Mena. The Associated Press reports that Cruise, a trained pilot, is said to not have been aboard the flight. The two individuals who died were identified as American film pilot, Alan David Purwin and Colombian Carlos Berl.
The other injured is American pilot, Jimmy Lee Garind, who was rushed to the hospital in Medellin immediately after the crash. The cause of the crash, stated by the locals, was due to bad weather. The twin-engine Aerostar crashed against the Alto de la Clarita mountain.
Purwin was the founder and president of Los Angeles-based Helinet Technologies. He’s worked for films such as Transformers, Pearl Harbor and Pirates of the Caribbean. He was also recently featured in Variety’s Artisans video series in a segment of aerial photography. The video covered the dangers of aerial cinematography, and spoke of efforts to “de-risk” as much as possible in the process.
The film Mena is directed by Doug Liman and has been shooting since late August. Tom Cruise plays Barry Seal, the American pilot who worked for Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, before he became a spy for the DEA.
