The secretary-general of Syria's main opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) saved the life of a Turkish passenger whose heart failed during a flight between Turkish capital Ankara and Istanbul, media reports said Monday.

Dr. Naser al-Hariri, an expert in cardiac diseases, saved 70-year-old Ali Işıklar who began to feel faint while the plane was beginning its descent into Istanbul on Friday.

Hariri told Anadolu Agency that when he saw that the passenger struggling to breathe, he rushed to him.

"His skin was cold and he was sweating profusely," explained Hariri, adding that he checked the passenger's pulse and realized that his heart was not beating.

He then made the passenger lie down in the plane's corridor, giving him a cardiac massage and artificial respiration to the patient.

"I continued until I heard the heartbeat, until he breathed again. When he awoke, he was in shock and he was sweating too much. We put on an oxygen mask. He began to breathe slowly," Hariri said.

Işıklar was immediately taken to the hospital after the plane landed and later underwent a surgery at Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty Hospital, according to what Hariri learned in a phone call with the patient, whose phone number he received before leaving the plane.

Hariri, from Daraa, is a former member of the People's Council of Syria. He joined the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces in 2013 after resigning from his post in protest of the Assad regime's killings of protesters. He became secretary-general of the Istanbul-based coalition in 2015.