James May has cheated death during a misjudged landing. With James May piloting the light aircraft and fighting a sidewind, his overconfidence saw him and a passenger end up with minor injuries after the plane hit the runway and flipped.

In an interview with Good Morning Britain, he said: “I crashed it, it’s as simple as that. On the runway. I was being over-confident. There were strong cross-winds in a light aircraft and I thought, ‘I can sort this out and get it back.’

“But I was wrong. It ended up upside down.

“As I was coming down I thought, ‘I’ll get away with this.’ ”

Both him and his passenger pulled themselves out of the plane as it was only recently filled with fuel and this fuel was spilling out of the plane at an alarming rate.

e said: “There was another bloke with me and we were both pretty much unscathed. I’d bashed my knees up and I was limping for a few days.

“He got hit on the ear by a metal flight case, which was fortunate, it made a little cut on his ear. It could’ve hit him on the back of the head and done something terrible.

“It was freshly filled with fuel and it was all pouring out, so we got out very quickly.

“But there was no fire, which was fortunate.”

In the same interview he was asked about Top Gear and whether he watches it:

“I like it. I like car shows. I think they’re [the ‘Top Gear’ hosts] almost as good as us. It’s amazing.

“I’ve known Chris Harris for 30 years. I like it and I like watching car shows and I don’t see why it’s a problem to have two big car shows.”

James will be one presenting The Grand Tour alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond with the new feature film, Seamen, being released 13 December this year. You can watch the trailer below.