A FORMER Royal Navy pilot was lucky to be alive yesterday after a light aircraft he was travelling in with friends was forced to ditch in the Atlantic.

Arthur Record, 82, of Clementhorpe, York, said he was alive "by the grace of God" after he and two fellow members of the Fleet Air Officers' Association were pulled from the sea by fishermen.

He and pals Denis Stanley, 82, from Gloucestershire, and Bernard Maslin, the 79-year-old pilot, were on board a Cessna 172 during a weekend get-together when their engine cut out at 2,000ft near the Isles of Scilly.

The men sent a Mayday radio message and came down in the water south of St Martin's Island, near a fishing boat called Semper Allegro.

After 20 minutes in the water, the intrepid trio were hauled on board by the crew of the boat, who contacted Falmouth Coastguard.

Suffering from cold and shock, they were later airlifted to Treliske Hospital, in Truro, by a Royal Navy Rescue helicopter from Culdrose.

Mr Record yesterday praised the Cessna's quick-thinking pilot and thanked his lucky stars that he was alive.

"Bernard did a most superb job. He did a classical ditch landing," he said. By the grace of God we saw a ship, so we landed as near as possible. We thought they hadn't seen us, which was a bit off-putting.

"I wouldn't be here to tell the tale if we hadn't been wearing lifejackets.

"There was a force four wind and quite big waves. As it was, I got fairly waterlogged. I was getting gulps of sea water."

The skipper of the Newlyn-based Semper Allegro, Julian Puckey, 29, said: "The three men were in the sea wearing lifejackets, and the aircraft stayed afloat for two or three minutes, but then sank."