BURT REYNOLDS still shudders when he recalls the time he almost lost his son in a high-flying helicopter mishap.

Reynolds was learning to pilot a helicopter when he decided to take his nine-year-old up for a test fly - and has regretted it ever since.

He says, "He was sitting up front with me… I banked over to the right, and his door flew open. He was hanging out of it, smiling and laughing at me like it was the coolest thing in the world.

"Somehow I was able to grab him and flip him back in. After that, I was shaking for three days. I still get a chill now, remembering it.

"When it happened, I was in the middle of a divorce. I remember I begged him not to go home and tell his mother."

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