But a fatal accident inquiry which heard evidence of the position in which the bodies were found, determined all of the victims had been leaving the ground.
He later blamed the disaster on 'natural unknown springs' and later ran a media campaign to maintain his position as NCB chairman ahead of the inquiry report.
He was an adviser to Chancellor Norman Lamont during the Exchange Rate Mechanism crisis of the early 1990s and headed the inquiry into whether former Home Secretary David Blunkett misused his position.