Thursday May 4th, 2000

Michael Schumacher said on Thursday he had been shaken by David Coulthard's plane crash as it was something that could easily have happened to him.

The German Ferrari driver, who broke his leg in a high-speed crash at Silverstone last July, said he would find a plane crash harder to come to terms with than a racing accident.

"The accident shook me up," said the two times world champion who, like most Formula One drivers, regularly travels the world by private jet.

"I thought about my own situation and that could happen to me any time.

"Something like that is far harder to get over and understand than a Formula One accident," he added at the Spanish grand prix.

"On the track you are always responsible for yourself. Flying, you depend on the pilot."

Benetton's Italian driver Giancarlo Fischella also expressed his relief that he had not been on the plane.

"It could quite easily have been me on board the plane," he was quoted as saying on Benetton's official website.

"A month or so ago, David gave me a ride from Jerez to Monte Carlo and I think it was in the same plane.

"We have to consider that we spend our F1 lives constantly getting on and getting off planes, both small and large ones."