LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Rally supremo David Richards and
his wife escaped serious injury on Sunday when the helicopter in
which they were flying crashed north of London, police said.

Earlier, Richards had led tributes for former world champion
Colin McRae after the Scot, his five-year-old son Johnny,
another child and a friend of McRae's were killed on Saturday
when their helicopter crashed near his Lanarkshire home.

Essex police said 55-year-old Richards, chief executive of
Prodrive who run Subaru's World Rally team, and his wife "walked
out of the wreckage" when their helicopter crashed near North
Weald airfield after returning from the Belgian Grand Prix.

Prodrive are due to enter Formula One next year as the
sport's 12th team.

"Something failed on the transmission system," Richards, who
was in charge of the Subaru team when McRae became the first
British world rally champion in 1995, was quoted as saying on
autosport.com.

"Because of what happened with Colin yesterday, we didn't
want to stay at Spa, we wanted to come back home early.

"We were nearing Stansted airport when we heard this bang at
the back of the aircraft. I was talking to the control at
Stansted at the time, so I immediately gave them a May Day call,
and the rescue crew came within minutes.

"Then, everything failed but I managed to bring it down to
the ground, and it fell on its side."

A spokesman for Subaru said Richards, a former Benetton and
BAR Formula One team boss, was badly shaken but unhurt. Police
said he and his wife were treated for shock by paramedics at the
scene.

Strathclyde Police have said a formal post-mortem is still
to be conducted but said in a statement they believed McRae and
his son were among the dead in Saturday's crash.