Hero tells of landing plane in the dark

A passenger who was forced to crash land a plane after the pilot was taken ill said he thought he was going to run into a wall as he struggled to reach the brakes to stop the aircraft.

John Wildey landed the plane at Humberside Airport, near Grimsby, north Lincolnshire, after being talked through it by a flight instructor.

The pilot, who has since died, had collapsed in the cockpit and Wildey — who had never even flown an aircraft before — was left to ground the Cessna 172.