The pilot, from Cessnock, was forced to issue a mayday call when his Cessna 206 stopped pumping fuel from a rubber drum inside the plane to the aircraft’s engine.

Police, ambulance and the local fire brigade were all placed on standby as the pilot, the sole person aboard the small aircraft, glided to a small private airstrip just outside the town at Rainbow Reach.

The owner of the airstrip, Rex Osborne, said the man had been extremely lucky.

“The chap was ferrying a plane from New Zealand and after leaving Lord Howe Island his engine cut out just off the coast,” he said.

“He was able to glide in and made a perfect landing. Luckily the wind was blowing in the right direction.”

Mr Osborne said once the man landed, he was able to repair the damaged fuel lines and fly the plane up to Coffs Harbour, where it was placed in quarantine.

It’s not the first time Mr Osborne has had a plane land at his airstrip during an emergency.

Some years ago he was moving cattle off the airstrip when a plane with a damaged push rod landed on his property.

“I heard a noise like a flat tyre on a car, so I looked towards the road but couldn’t see anything,” he said.

“Then I looked up and there’s this plane circling.

“It landed and the pilot, his wife, two daughters and a poodle all jumped out.

“His push rod had broken and a tube had punctured, spilling oil every- where.”

Mr Osborne said the man told him he had intended to fly his family from Mittagong to Lismore the previous evening but had decided against it.

“It was just as well because a storm came up and if the push rod had broken that night they would have been history,” he said.

“It just points out the fact that we need aerodromes, not closed aerodromes.”