Top jockey Frankie Dettori the rider of a record seven winners on one day at Ascot two years ago provided proof of his amazing return to fitness following an air crash last summer.

The twice flat race champion, who had to have surgery on a broken ankle, performed his famous flying dismount from a horse for photographers before speaking to a packed house at the Oxford Union last night.

During a good-humoured 60-minute question-and-answer session with students and tutors, the 30-year-old rider touched on many aspects of his life and career, which burgeoned when he burst on to the British racing scene in 1987, and rode his first winner, Lizzy Hare, at Goodwood. But inevitably questions arose about his feelings following the events of June 1 this year, when a private plane, on loan from Oxford Aviation Services at Oxford Airport, Kidlington, came to grief on take-off at Newmarket racecourse, killing the pilot.

Reliving the moment when he "stared death in the face", Dettori said: "I didn't get my life flashing in front of my eyes like people say. I was just disappointed I was going to die.

"There was no question in my mind I was going to die, and I just felt this bitter feeling of disappointment because everything was going for me, and because of my lovely family. "I just closed my eyes and waited for the impact. There was this enormous bang, and then it was earth, sky, earth sky, and then - suddenly everything stopped.

"I could see smoke, and the engine was on fire, and for a second I thought I was on the other side. Then, suddenly, I came back to reality and Ray said 'Get out, get out!'"

Like Cochrane, Dettori escaped through an open luggage hatch with relatively minor injuries - in his case, a broken ankle and cuts - but he made a fairytale comeback at Newmarket just ten weeks after his miraculous escape by rising a double on his own two rides. Asked if his life had changed as a result of his terrifying experience, Dettori said: "It is different and I am planning to enjoy my second time around more than my first.

"I am back to square one flying all over the place and not having five minutes to see my wife and family but I know now I am doing it because I enjoy doing it."