Sir Alan Sugar: I got landing wrong

2:24pm Saturday 11th October 2008

He is used to making all the big decisions, but Sir Alan Sugar has admitted a wrong call when he crash-landed his plane.

The star of The Apprentice television series told officials he probably should have aborted his first attempt at landing during a thunderstorm in Manchester in July.

Multi-millionaire Sir Alan, 61, dismissed reports he "cheated death", walking away unharmed after the aircraft overshot the 750-yard grass runway and hit a rut in the ground at City Airport Manchester, an airfield at Barton, on the edge of the city.

The bumpy landing pranged the four-seater Cirrus plane, damaging the front wheel and the propeller.

A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch into the crash on July 5, stated: "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 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."