Coldplay star cheats death

Music

16:30 17 January 2005

Coldplay star Chris Martin has revealed how he nearly died when his plane hit a dust storm as it tried to land at a remote African airstrip.

The singer, who has an eight-month-old daughter, Apple, with actress wife Gwyneth Paltrow, is currently in Africa to promote fair trade and says his life flashed before his eyes during the frightening incident.

He told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "It was so terrifying. The plane was all over the place. My mind was racing and I thought, 'My daughter will have to get a stepdad.'

"I also thought I haven't written a will, the band haven't finished the album. Then I thought, 'I'll be dying on a fair trade trip so people will always link me with that.' All these things were going through my head."

Chris, 27, was travelling with charity organisation Oxfam in a small aircraft when it hit a sandstorm as it tried to land at Ghana's Tamale Airport.

He added: "Once a year, for a week, all this dust blows over from the Sahara Desert. You could not see a thing, nor could the pilot.

"The plane was lurching everywhere. But somehow the pilot landed. I don't know how he did it. I was convinced he wasn't going to."

(c) BANG Media International