Sir Alan Sugar has told accident investigators he made a wrong call when he crash-landed his plane at a small Greater Manchester airstrip. The Apprentice star walked away from the light aircraft when it skidded off the end of the grass runway at City Airport Manchester, Eccles, in July.
Sir Alan, 61, laughed off reports he had cheated death in the crash. But he has told officials he should have aborted his first landing attempt, which happened during a thunderstorm. The Air Accident Investigation Branch ( AAIB ) has recently published a report into the crash, which damaged the propeller of the Cirrus aircraft.
Sir Alan and his passenger were unharmed in the incident at the Barton airfield. The report said: "As the aircraft turned onto the final approach, the visibility deteriorated, and the wind shifted, becoming a slight tail wind. "The pilot lost sight of the far end of the runway in the poor visibility, and touched down in the middle third of the runway.
"Conscious of the risk of skidding on the 'very wet' runway, he applied light braking. "The aircraft ran off the end of the runway into a rough area of long grass.
Both occupants vacated the aircraft without difficulty." The report said of Sir Alan: "The pilot reported that, with the benefit of hindsight, he considers that a go-around would have been a safer course of action."
