Sir Alan Sugar escaped unhurt when his light aircraft crashed at an airfield near Manchester on Saturday.
Sugar, who is the star of reality TV show 'The Apprentice', was onboard when his plane overshot the runway at City of Manchester Airport during a thunderstorm and hit a rut in the ground.
The plane came to a halt just short of the perimeter fence and could not fly again because of damage to its propeller.
Speaking to the Press Association Sugar said: "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."
However the star played down suggestions that he had "cheated death", saying: "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."
Meanwhile, 30-year-old Lee McQueen, the winner of the recent 'The Apprentice' series, begins his first full week with his new boss today after missing his start date due to sickness.
McQueen was due to report for work on 1 July but phoned in sick because he was suffering from a "flu-like virus", according to a spokesman for Sugar.
As the winner of the contest, he has been hired on a £100,000-a-year job to launch a digital advertising product.
McQueen landed the job despite being caught out lying on his CV during the recruitment process.
