THE wife of one of the Swindon Town executives who survived a light aircraft crash has spoken of the moment her heart stood still.

Anita Sullivan, whose husband Mike is the club's marketing manager, was at a charity event when she received a call telling her to ring a hospital accident and emergency department.

"A nurse asked if my husband was likely to be a passenger in a light aircraft.

"I think I nearly fainted and a friend took the phone off me. I was thinking the worst until I was told that Mike was conscious and was going to be okay.

"It was a terrible moment. I really did think he was dead."

Josie Devlin, the wife of club chief executive Mark, was at the theatre in High Wycombe watching her daughter Hayley in a play and so had her mobile phone switched off.

Thames Valley police sent officers to the theatre to tell Mrs Devlin that both her husband and ten-year-old son were in the plane, which crashed as the group travelled back from Swindon's first game of the season at Hartlepool on Saturday.

Ironically the plane came down at Denham Golf Course in Buckinghamshire just yards from the home of Swindon Town boss Dennis Wise.

Both women rushed to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough to see the injured.

Mrs Sullivan said: "When I got there Mike was conscious and knew who I was but he was obviously in a lot of pain.

"I could hardly recognise Stan Devlin as he had such a huge bruise to his head, it had swollen to almost double its normal size."

Also on board the Cessna 310 aircraft was Swindon director Bill Power, his friend Alan and pilot Frank Kratky.

The Sullivans' younger son Jamie, 18, was told of the accident immediately but because of the time difference Mrs Sullivan delayed telling their elder boy Lee, 21, who is working at the Disney resort in Florida.

She said: "I didn't realise but the first he knew of it was when he read about it on a website.

"He rang his brother's mobile and was very cross with me for not telling him."

The couple, who have been married for more than 26 years, live in Langley near Slough.

Mrs Sullivan is a regular at the Swindon home games but does not usually travel away. She said it was the first time the club bosses had used a light aircraft.

"It was chartered by Bill Power and Mike was given the chance to go on it.

"He has said he will never go on another light aircraft ever again. Ever since the accident people have been telling us how dangerous they are but I didn't even think about it before.

"We are due to fly to America to see our son in January so I am hoping he will be okay to go an ordinary plane."

Mr Sullivan, 53, returned home on Tuesday evening after an operation on his broken left arm.

They were very lucky to come out alive EXPERIENCED flyer Sir Seton Wills was stunned after a light aircraft carrying Swindon Town's top boardroom officials crashed on Saturday night.

Three executives and the son of one of them escaped with broken bones from the wreckage of a Cessna 303 after it plunged into woodland on a golf course on its way back from Hartlepool to Denham Aerodrome in Buckinghamshire.

The club's majority shareholder, who did not travel to Saturday's opening League Two fixture, was relieved that chief executive Mark Devlin and his son Stanley, ten, sales and marketing manager Mike Sullivan and director Bill Power survived the terrifying ordeal.

After hearing the news on Sunday Sir Seton said : "I was shocked, it was a terrible thing to happen. They were very, very lucky to come out alive.

"I have not flown to matches but I have done a lot of flying in light aircraft in Africa, in Zimbabwe, South Africa and so on, and I do get very scared during the flights.

"I have had no bad experiences though, touch wood, but I guess you can just get unlucky."