The Leeds United star’s career was cut short after a “crazy” plane ride almost ended in tragedy
Tom Sunderland Sports Writer
17:22, 21 Jan 2026
Lee Bowyer has recalled the moment he “thought he was going to die” when a plane carrying the Leeds squad crashed in 1998(Image: Michael Steele /Allsport)
Leeds legend Lee Bowyer has detailed the “madness” that was his plane crash nightmare with team-mates in 1998. The Whites were returning north from the Premier League clash at West Ham when disaster struck shortly following take-off.
A star-studded squad including the like of Harry Kewell, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Alfie Haaland (father of Erling) and others were all aboard for the flight. However, it quickly became apparent the craft wouldn’t be reaching its destination after one of the engines exploded and Bowyer was sure he “was going to die.”
Speaking on The Managers podcast with Mick McCarthy and Tony Pulis, he said: “We’re in the plane, [manager] George [Graham] says, ‘You can’t stay down, you’ve gotta go back. You’re in tomorrow.’ So I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So we’re on the plane, one of them little ones you would have been on, 50-seater or whatever, little propeller things, and we’re at Stansted.
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“So obviously it’s dark because it’s been a Monday night game, we’re driving along, take-off, climbing…then all of a sudden, you hear, Bang!’ This big, massive bang. I’ve got Rod Wallace in front of me, who’s on the wing door, and obviously that’s where the engine is.
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“So I’m literally sitting here, [and] I’m looking at this thing on fire. This engine on fire. It’s probably 30 yards away from me.”
All the while Bowyer is sharing details of his near-death experience, Pulis is making no effort to contain his laughter. And despite McCarthy’s protests that he “don’t think we should be laughing,” Bowyer took it in stride.
“You have to laugh, because I’m still sitting here,” he continued. “I laugh about it. So we’re still climbing and the thing’s on fire. Everyone stands up, shouting at the top of their voices, ‘Take it down! Take it down!’ It’s just gone AWOL on the plane.
Bowyer recalled the incident on The Managers podcast(Image: The Managers podcast)
“Then big Robert Molenaar, he stands up and says, ‘Everyone sit down! Calm down!’ So everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And then there’s smoke coming in now, filling up the plane with smoke, thing’s on fire, and then all of a sudden we start going down.
“But you’re constantly watching and thinking, ‘Right it’s gonna blow.’ Because you watch the movies, they blow up, and then that’s it, it’s over. But that’s the movies, and that’s what’s in my head. So now I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god, that’s it. I’m gonna die.’
“And then we end up crash landing. But the front wheel, because we came down too steep, the front wheel breaks, so we go into the dirt. You can feel it bouncing, bouncing. So then now I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god, we’re buried! We’re buried under the dirt!’ And the thing’s still on fire!”
Bowyer went on to become a Leeds legend(Image: PA)
With a cloud of smoke still obscuring vision inside the craft, Bowyer described it as a “free-for-all” to escape. There was also a major moment of panic for then-chairman Peter Risdale, who ran from the front of the plane to get to his son, who was sitting at the back.
Assistant coach David O’Leary managed to crane an exit door open and turned up at training the next day with his arm “bandaged like a superhero,” having evidently hurt himself in the process. Bowyer also recalled how one of the directors, who was “a big lad,” as he recalled, refused to jump from the plane before a player “booted him off” as a last resort.
McCarthy remarked how “lucky doesn’t do it justice” after hearing a firefighter told passengers the plane “would have blown” if left on fire for another minute. Bowyer stayed at Leeds for another five years before going on to play for West Ham, Newcastle, Birmingham and Ipswich Town, as well as winning a solitary England cap in 2002.
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