Crash survivor's story to raise cash

Plummeting 8,000ft from the sky at 200mph in a stricken plane, Fred Jones was convinced he was going to die.

But the extraordinary story of the South Staffordshire millionaire's life and recovery from the crash, which cost him an eye and his nose and left him in a coma for three weeks, has been published in aid of the hospital which rebuilt him.

Fred Jones has committed all the proceeds from his autobiography, Shattered Image: The Life and Loves of a Broken Man, to the Midlands and Wales Centre for Spinal Injuries in Oswestry where he recuperated.

The story charts the 57-year-old's former life, including his time as a magistrate and a freemason as well as a 10-year love affair before the crash which almost killed him.

He also broke his spine, shoulder, jaw and ankle. Doctors said he would never walk again and would be left permanently brain damaged. But 20 years later, Fred, of Wombourne, runs a successful business in Oldbury.

The accident shocked the Midlands when it happened on April 2, 1988. Fred, a qualified pilot, was in a Piper Cherokee being flown by an instructor. They had set off from Halfpenny Green airport in Bobbington en route to Wales, but the plane iced up when they hit freezing cloud and smashed into a hillside.

Fred hit the dashboard and the instructor, Kenneth Turner from Cradley Heath, was flung from the plane but also survived. Fred, of Heath House Drive, said: "I had had my head crushed but I went back to work and as I recovered I made some very irrational decisions, losing half a million pounds."

Wife Peta, 55, stood by Fred despite his 10 year fling. The book pays tribute to Peta and sons Simon, 29, and Peter, 26. The book is ghost written by Angela Weston and is available from Waterstone and WHSmith priced £5.95. Signed copies are available for £7.50 by sending a cheque payable to Shattered Image to PO Box 5398, Wombourne, WV5 5AA.