Sir Alan's crash landing mistake

Sir Alan Sugar shrugged off the crash in July

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 laughed off reports he cheated death in the crash but said it would have been better to abort the landing.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch has published a report into the crash.

The accident, which happened during a thunderstorm, damaged the propeller of the Cirrus aircraft.

Sir Alan and his passenger were unharmed in the incident at the Barton airfield.

Benefit of hindsight

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."