1:49pm UK, Wednesday May 21, 2008

Two pilots in a microlight were literally flying on a wing and a prayer when their fuel ran out - and it seemed that divine intervention took a hand in bringing them down safely.

Microlight made miracle landing

Grant Stubbs and Owen Wilson, both from the town of Blenheim on New Zealand's South Island, were flying up the sloping valley of Pelorus Sound when the engine spluttered, coughed and died.

"My friend and I are both Christians so our immediate reaction in a life-threatening situation was to ask for God's help," Mr Stubbs said.

He said he prayed that the tiny craft would get over the top of a ridge and that they would find a landing site that was not too steep - or in the nearby sea.

Mr Wilson said that the pair would have been in deep trouble if the fuel had run out five minutes earlier.

"If it had to run out, that was the place to be," he said.

"There was an instantaneous answer to prayer as we crossed the ridge and there was an airfield - I didn't know it existed till then."

Mr Wilson glided the craft to a landing on the grassy strip, coming to rest just beside a 20ft sign that read "Jesus is Lord - The Bible".

"When we saw that, we started laughing," Mr Stubbs said.

"It was a bit of relief, and I guess confirmation for us that it was God that really did save us from this one!"

Nearby residents provided them with enough petrol to fly home.