A FAMILY fishing trip turned into a nightmare after a father and son fell into the Thames Estuary and had to be airlifted to hospital.

John Ellis and his son Daniel, nine, were fishing on the all tide landing in Queenborough on Monday afternoon when Daniel slipped and fell into the icy water.

Mr Ellis lunged to grab him, but lost his footing and the pair drifted out to sea.They tried to swim ashore, but were dragged along by the current, weighed down by their water-logged clothes.

Mr Ellis, 41, who runs the Kingsferry Guesthouse in Queenborough Road with his wife Mandy, son and daughters Katrina, 16, and Elizabeth, 14, manoeuvred his son on to his back, and eventually managed to grab hold of a mooring buoy about 100 feet off shore.

He said: "I thought it was do or die so I grabbed the chain and told Daniel to hang on tight.

"But the cold was extreme. I thought we were both gonners. I was terrified for him, but I thought I am not going to give in. It kept running through my head that this was a stupid way to die."

Daniel, a pupil at Halfway Houses Primary School, clung to his father's neck, but when his fingers started to turn blue, Mr Ellis got him to climb over his back and on to the top of the buoy.

He said: "At that point I thought I have saved him. If I go, then I go, but I have saved him."

The alarm was raised by Chris Kennedy, a passing jogger and former neighbour of the Ellis family. He heard them shouting and flagged down a passer-by, who called the coastguard.

The Sheerness inshore lifeboat and a RAF Sea King helicopter from Wattisham in Suffolk were called into action.

Mr Ellis and his son spent almost half and an hour in the water before they were winched into the helicopter and taken to Southend Hospital.

They were treated for hypothermia and released later that night.

Mr Ellis thanked everybody who was involved in rescuing and treating them but said the experience had put him off fishing.

He added: "I wouldn't want to go in the water in any other place. But I think there will be some fishing gear up for sale now."

Colin Overington, deputy station commander at Sheppey Coastguard, said: "Something you think is perfectly safe and enjoyable can suddenly become a serious incident. What the father thought was a wonderful day out fishing with his son turned into a nightmare."