A man has suffered a heart attack while flying a microlight plane.

The pilot, who is believed to be in his 60s, started suffering chest pain while flying but was able to safely landed the plane in an airfield near Newmarket before someone called 999 at 1.43pm on Saturday.

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST), along with East Anglian Air Ambulance attended the incident, and the critical care doctor and paramedic travelled with the patient in the land ambulance to the hospital.

Dale Boulston, a paramedic for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) who attended the incident, said: “While we were assessing the patient he went into cardiac arrest.

“We worked to resuscitate him and were fortunately able to get a return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), which means his heart started beating normally again. We took him to West Suffolk General for further treatment and I was able to visit him in hospital yesterday.

“He is doing incredibly well, already sitting up and talking to his family which is quite unusual for the day after a cardiac arrest.”

A spokesperson for EEAST said: “The man was incredibly lucky that he was able to land the plane when he did as if he had suffered the cardiac arrest while flying, it would have been very dangerous for both himself and possibly people on the ground as he wouldn’t have been able to land it safely.

“When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, it’s vital that they have CPR and defibrillation as soon as possible, and it this case the crew were able to administer the life-saving treatment immediately.

“We’d like to wish the patient all the best with his recovery.”