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Carrie Fisher hospitalized after suffering heart attack on plane

December 23, 2016 at 11:35 p.m. EST
Actress Carrie Fisher was hospitalized on Dec. 23 after suffering a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles. (Video: Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Actress Carrie Fisher suffered a major cardiac episode while on a flight from London to Los Angeles on Friday and was rushed to a hospital, according to multiple reports.

The incident was first reported by TMZ — which described Fisher as having a “massive heart attack” — and confirmed by multiple outlets, including NBC News and the Los Angeles Times.

Representatives for Fisher, 60, did not immediately return The Washington Post’s inquiries. Her brother, Todd Fisher, told the Associated Press that she was receiving treatment in an intensive care unit after a medical emergency on a flight. He had previously told the wire service her condition was stable but later said her condition was unknown.

“She’s in the ICU and everybody’s praying for her,” Todd Fisher told Variety on Friday. “There’s nothing new from the doctors. There’s nothing new at all. … There’s no good news or bad news.”

At 12:11 p.m. Pacific time, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to Gate 74 at Los Angeles International Airport “for a patient on an inbound flight in cardiac arrest,” department spokesman Erik Scott said. “Paramedics were standing by for the plane’s arrival, provided advanced life support and aggressively treated and transported the patient to a local hospital.”

Audio released from the flight carrying Carrie Fisher as she suffered a heart attack suggests the actress was "unresponsive" as the plane approached Los Angeles (Video: Reuters)

Scott declined to provide any additional information about the patient, including name, age or gender.

LAX police received a call about 12:15 p.m. about a woman who had gone into cardiac arrest on a United flight from London, said department spokeswoman Alicia Hernandez. Officers arrived in Terminal 7 and found paramedics already performing CPR on her, and she was taken to a hospital.

Medical personnel met United Flight 935 from London to Los Angeles “upon arrival today after the crew reported that a passenger was unresponsive,” United Airlines said in a statement that also did not name Fisher. “Our thoughts are with our customer at this time.”

Fisher had been aboard a flight from London to Los Angeles when she suffered a “cardiac episode” that left her in critical condition, emergency officials told the L.A. Times. Two law enforcement sources described her condition as “not good” to NBC News, which reported that the actress was rushed to a hospital.

A number of people tweeted that they had been on the United flight with Fisher, including one who wrote that Fisher was taken off the plane by EMTs.

Fisher, the daughter of legendary celebrities Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, is considered Hollywood royalty and rose to stardom as Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” franchise. She has since been outspoken about her personal struggles with addiction and bipolar disorder, and has become an advocate for mental health issues.

She has written numerous books, and was recently on tour to promote her new memoir, “The Princess Diarist,” in which she confirmed her much-rumored on-set affair with co-star Harrison Ford.

Fisher reprised her Leia character in the 2015 movie “The Force Awakens” and recently finished filming “Star Wars: Episode VIII.”

As word spread of her condition, Fisher’s “Star Wars” co-stars tweeted well wishes. Mark Hamill wrote “as if 2016 couldn’t get any worse . . . sending all our love” to Fisher.

“Sending my love,” Billy Dee Williams tweeted about Fisher. “Please recover.”

This story has been updated multiple times.