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Air New Zealand cabin crew are being praised for reviving a passenger who suffered a suspected heart attack on a domestic flight.

The small plane was flying from Dunedin to Wellington today when the man went into medical distress just minutes after take-off.

Fellow passenger Richard Woods said the 'exceptional' crew recognised the situation and jumped into action to resuscitate the man.

A passenger says the man went into medical distress on the flight from Dunedin to Wellington

Mr Woods, head of emergency planning for Auckland Council, told the New Zealand Herald: 'We were about five or ten minutes into take-off and the fella behind me was just not very well. The airline attendant picked up on that pretty quickly, she tried to get him to respond, but he wasn't responding.

'She very, very efficiently pulled him down onto the floor and got the resuscitation pack out and brought him around with the assistance of the other two crew.

'The crew were exceptional and everyone on the plane was extremely impressed. They pilot came down later and everyone was just saying how exceptional the crew had been. Once he'd been shocked, he came back around.'

The plane turned around and returned to Dunedin airport, where it was met by emergency services

During the emergency the twin-engine turboprop turned around and returned to Dunedin International Airport, where it was met by paramedics, who rushed the man to hospital.

A St John Ambulance spokesman told the newspaper the man was taken to hospital in 'a very serious condition'.

After the man was taken to hospital the flight departed and arrived in Wellington two hours later than scheduled, an airline spokeswoman said.