IT was a chance encounter in an international airport which brought back memories of a Southampton plane crash involving music superstar Gary Numan. 

Former TV journalist Lee Peck was returning from a visit to see his California-based son Sam with his daughter Frankie Fisher earlier this week when a face he recognised from the past appeared in the departure lounge at LAX.

Lee, who runs his own communications agency, approached electronic music pioneer Numan to remind him of the time he interviewed him live on TV after the plane he was a passenger in crashed-landed near Eastleigh.

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He has since appeared on the musician's Twitter and Instagram feeds, which have tens of thousands of followers. 

Lee, who lives in Chandlers Ford, told the Daily Echo: "It's such a small world! I'm incorrigible and I just couldn't help myself, I had to say hello. It was just one of those funny things to happen. 

"He was very friendly on both occasions. He looked a bit scary sat there all in black at the airport, but he couldn't have been more of a gentleman. 

"I remember we were all running around the studio back then, it was big news at the time. A plane crash with a big star surviving was a double whammy. He was in quite a state and very shaken up, he obviously could have died."

Daily Echo: Gary Numan and Lee Peck at LAX

It was on January 29 in 1982 when Numan's aircraft made a forced landing while on approach to Southampton Airport following a music industry meeting in Cannes. 

The aircraft, a Cessna T210 Centurion, was experiencing an electrical power problem and it also ran out of fuel and the pilot was forced to land in a field near the airport, crashing through the hedge and ending up on the B3354 Botley to Horton Heath road.

Neither Numan nor his pilot were injured and he appeared on the Coast to Coast programme on TVS just hours later. Lee had only worked for TVS, at the studios in Northam, for four weeks, having previously played Numan's hit records as a radio presenter.