THREE men were within four minutes of disaster when their failing light aircraft made it to Alderney yesterday.

Pilot Mark Eddleston, 24 (pictured), had taken off from Sandtoft, near Doncaster, with two friends for a short holiday in Jersey.

They were cruising at 4,500ft when, just after 11am, their single-engined Cessna 182 lost power north of Alderney and started losing altitude at 300ft a minute.

‘Everything was going well until the engine power started to reduce when we were about half-way across the Channel,’ said Mr Eddleston.

‘We were losing manifold pressure – the engine was still running even though we didn’t have sufficient power to keep us level.’

Mr Eddleston initially decided to keep going for Jersey then, realising that was too far, aimed for the nearest airport.

‘It was the slowest 10 miles of my life,’ he said.

‘If Alderney wasn’t there, we would have ended up in the water. Alderney saved our lives.’