Alan Sugar 'survives plane crash'

Sir Alan Sugar stepped down as Amstrad chairman on 2 July

Sir Alan Sugar has escaped unhurt after his plane 'crash-landed' at an airfield on the outskirts of Manchester.

The business tycoon and star of The Apprentice walked away from the light aircraft after it hit a rut in the ground after landing on Saturday.

But Sir Alan is playing down the crash: "I had as much chance of dying from food poisoning from the sandwich a very nice lady made us in the clubhouse."

The 61-year-old had left an airstrip near his Essex home an hour earlier.

Bad weather

Sir Alan was landing his four-seater plane at Manchester's City Airport in a thunderstorm.

He managed to stop short of the perimeter fence.

He said: "On Saturday during heavy rain and a thunderstorm we landed at Barton, a friendly and club-like airfield now named City Airport Manchester - a far grander name than it suggests with a grass runway about the same length as a football pitch.

"We landed and ran over the end of the slippery runway by about 15 feet into some taller grass.

"In doing so the propeller of the plane picked up some minor damage and according to the rules this means the plane can't fly unless checked out by a qualified engineer, of which there were none available.

"As far as 'life-threatening' is concerned, to put things in perspective my friend and I had as much chance of dying from the incident as we did in dying from food poisoning from the tuna sandwich that a very nice lady made us in the clubhouse whilst we waited for a mate to pick us up and take us home."