Pilot blinded by stroke guided to landing

YORK, England, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- An English pilot who was temporarily blinded by a stroke while he was 15,000 feet over Yorkshire was guided back to ground by a Royal Air Force plane.

Jim O'Neill, who has been flying for 18 years, was returning to Essex from Scotland in his Cessna on Oct. 31 when he lost his sight, The Times of London reported. He sent out a call for help and air traffic control got help from the Royal Air Force.

The RAF plane flew side by side with the Cessna, providing information to a controller who then gave directions to O'Neill.

On the fourth try, O'Neill made a safe landing at the base at Linton-on-Ouse.

"I should not be alive. I owe my life -- and those of dozens of people I could have crash-landed on -- to the RAF," he told The Daily Mirror. "It was terrifying. Suddenly I couldn't see the dials in front of me. All there was in front of me was a blur. I was helpless at the controls."

O'Neill, 65, was taken to York Hospital and then transferred to a hospital in Romford, Essex, for treatment.