Eric Boullier had a scare on Sunday as he returned from a visit to the fabled Le Mans race.
The McLaren boss was sharing a journey on a private plane with friend Zak Brown, a well-known F1 sponsorship figure, when the aircraft developed a fault.
Brown, describing the incident as a "close call", said on Twitter that the plane "lost all electronics mid-flight. Fire brigade met us in the runway".
Revealing more, a report on the official Le Mans website said the plane’s "entire (electronics) system shut down and the pilot issued a rather worrying mayday signal".
"Thanks to the skills of the pilot, (the plane) landed safely in the end," the report added.