Government paid Hughie Green after attack on his plane

The government paid television star Hughie Green more than £300 in an out-of-court settlement after he was fired upon while flying his own plane to Berlin in the Sixties, newly released papers show. The host of such shows as Double Your Money and Opportunity Knocks sued the Ministry of Aviation after Soviet fighters buzzed his private aircraft to force him to land.

The National Archive papers show Green, inset, a wartime pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force, blamed the British for not telling him the Soviets objected to his flight plan. He sued and the government decided to settle to avoid British officers having to testify about their liaison with the Russians.

Two Soviet fighters fired bursts at his twin-engine Cessna in April 1963 in an effort to intimidate him, but he flew on.