A PILOT who was blinded in mid-air during a solo flight yesterday thanked the RAF team who cool-headedly shepherded him safely back to earth.

Jim O’Neill was at the controls of his Cessna 182 light aircraft when he suffered a stroke at 5,000ft, rendering him sightless.

But he was safely brought back to the ground by an RAF pilot returning from a training sortie backed by the air traffic control team at Linton-on-Ouse, near York.

The rescue in November last year made international headlines but only now has the 65-year-old businessman regained sufficient eyesight to make the journey back to the base to thank his rescuers.

Still unable to fly or drive, he was flown to the base from his home in Essex by his friend Robin Rudderham in the same Cessna.

And there waiting for him was Wing Commander Paul Gerrard, the Tucano pilot who flew alongside him and talked him down, and Flight Lieutenant Terry O’Brien, the air traffic controller who supervised the rescue mission.

“It was wonderful to meet Wing Commander Gerrard. He saved my life,” said an emotional Mr O’Neill.

“Back in November he came alongside and calmly told me ‘left.....stop, descend...stop’ until I reached the runway.

“I really don't know how he did it. This is a day I wouldn't have missed for anything.”

The drama unfolded when Mr O'Neill, a pilot for 18 years, was 40 minutes into a flight from Glasgow to Essex.

RAF Linton's air traffic control team answered his mayday call and first tried to guide him down to the airfield at Full Sutton, near York, but that proved impossible.

Wing Commander Gerrard was sent to the rescue and radar operators talked him to within a few metres of the Cessna.

Then, while weaving in the air so his powerful Tucano could stay with the much slower aircraft, the RAF pilot talked Mr O'Neill every inch of the way back to the ground at Linton.

Using basic commands, he was able to guide Mr O'Neill to the runway, even telling him when to lower the nose, and by how much, on the critical final approach.

Yesterday Wing Commander Gerrard played down his part in the rescue. “It was all about teamwork. A team effort where everyone at Linton played their part,” he said.

Flight Lieutenant O’Brien said: “My heart was in my mouth, certainly but, at the end of the day, we successfully got him down.

“There was elation and relief, but it was a superb team effort. The whole team were cool, calm and collected. It was a cracking team effort.”