THE adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes was in a critical condition last night after suffering a heart attack on an aircraft.

Sir Ranulph, 59, collapsed after boarding a plane in Bristol and was rushed to hospital where he had an emergency heart bypass operation within hours.

His wife, Virginia, who was at his bedside in the Bristol Royal Infirmary, praised the actions of the staff at Bristol airport, where the couple were boarding an easyJet flight to Edinburgh on Saturday morning.

Lady Fiennes said that her husband was given “very prompt attention” after suffering the attack while in his seat as the crew were making final checks before takeoff. Getting treatment in the hour after a heart attack is crucial to a successful recovery, medical experts say.

Firefighters at Bristol International Airport gave emergency first aid, and the 130 other passengers were delayed for three hours while he was taken to Bristol Royal Infirmary.

A hospital spokeswoman said: “Last night he underwent an emergency heart bypass. His condition is described as critical but stable. He is in intensive care.”

The adventurer is regarded as one of the fittest of his generation, and was conscious of the risks of heart disease. He tried to take every precaution against it. Described by the Guinness Book Of Records as the “world’s greatest living explorer”, he has been to both poles, crossed Antarctica twice, and discovered the lost city of Ubar in the Arabian desert. He was appointed OBE for “human endeavour and charitable services”.

In 2000 he was forced to abandon a solo attempt to reach the North Pole after his sledge became submerged in moving ice. He was plunged into freezing water when one of the two food supply sledges he was towing fell through thin ice. The frostbite he suffered was so severe that several of his fingers had to be amputated.

In recent years he has devoted himself to writing books and giving talks on his demanding fitness routine, including the best-selling Fit For Life. The book was necessary, he said, because he found it difficult to answer the barrage of letters he got asking for health advice.

Although he was once voted Pipe Smoker of the Year, he gave up his single cigarette a day in 1999 in order to improve the circulation in his frost-bitten extremities. During a previous attempt to reach the North Pole in 1990 a frost-bitten toe turned gangrenous and part of the rotting flesh came away in his sock.

At his home, a farm on Exmoor where his wife breeds Aberdeen Angus cattle, he said that he tried to adopt a lifestyle based on the best scientific evidence to avoid heart disease. His abstemious regime also drew on his time in the Army as a paratrooper and SAS officer.

While trudging to the poles he burned calories at a rate of 8,000 a day, but strongly advised his readers to keep fatty foods out of the house, adding: “Don’t even let them into your car”.

He recommended one glass of red wine a day, limited coffee and no tobacco. He runs for two and a half hours every other day, and trains with weights on the alternate days. Ten years ago an army medical examiner said that he had the body of a 21-year-old athlete in peak form.

If people found it really hard to get motivated, he suggested: “Visit one of those rooms where they’re all sitting waiting on their heart bypasses, and the others who have just come out of the heart bypass factory and have got this big crucifix scar on their chests.” On what is seen as another contributor to heart disease — stress — he said that his life as an adventurer was not stressful. “Confrontations with polar bears and crevasses might on the face of it seem very stressful but seldom cause any stress build-up because they involve clear-cut hazards which call for immediate action.” To keep in shape for potential expeditions he became the oldest member — by 24 years — of the British team in the 1999 Eco Challenge Endurance Race in Patagonia, a 300-mile multi-discipline event across gruelling terrain completed in a week.

Sir Ranulph was in training for his annual participation in the Karrimor Mountain Marathon — 60 miles over two days in the Scottish mountains held in October.

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