Sullivan’s shock after toss of coin decision

David Sullivan  has spoken of the shock that he and David Gold could have been aboard a plane that crashed into an Essex airfield yesterday as they waited to head for Sunderland.

David Gold had alerted ClaretandHugh that they were both safe yesterday afternoon soon after the plane went down and Sullivan later revealed: “The aviation company, London Executive Aviation, have two planes and we have flown on that particular plane about 50 times.

“It was fifty fifty whether we got on the plane that crashed or the other one. It’s a real shock. My heart goes out to the families of the pilots, it’s very, very sad.

“I am quite shocked to think David (Gold) and I could have got on that plane – it was the toss of a coin.

“When we arrived at the airport it was already closed off because of the crash and we had to divert to Stansted to get a flight to Newcastle to get to the Sunderland game. We were a bit late for the match.

“We used that airline all the time and they are really excellent. The planes are twin engine so if one engine failed it could still fly so it’s a mystery why it crashed. The pilots were very experienced guys.”

The Mirror reported: ‘Mr Gold said on West Ham online fan forum ­claretandhugh said: “We are OK. The plane that crashed was ­arriving to take us to Sunderland.”

Police said the eight-seat Beechcraft King Air 200 went down in a field in Chigwell, Essex, just after take-off at 10.20am and burst into flames.