Tag: Emiliano Sala

 

Facts have now emerged that the part-time pilot who flew Emiliano Sala from France to Wales before crashing into the Channel made ‘basic errors’ before take-off.

David Ibbotson was also not allowed to take paying passengers because he only had a private licence – not a commercial one and didn’t have the qualifications to fly in bad weather but took their plane into a winter storm, it also emerged Monda

But ahead of that publication new documents from France have emerged about Mr Ibbotson’s qualifications and pre-flight preparations.

Images uploaded to social media by Argentine Fox Sports journalist Christian Martin appear to show that in his flight plan Mr Ibbotson, a boiler engineer by trade, made a number of ‘basic errors’ before taking off from Nantes airport in western France.

David Ibbotson, 60, has been named as the pilot at the controls of the privately-owned Piper Malibu aircraft carrying star footballer Sala as it emerged the investigation will involve checking the flight was legal

Mr Ibbotson, from Scunthorpe, gained his private pilot’s licence in the US but does not have a commercial licence for paid flights

One image shows how Ibbotson apparently incorrectly filled in the plane’s licence number on the form, writing N246DB instead of N264DB.

The pilot also reportedly used Visual Flight Rules (VFR) instead of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR).

This means his qualifications only allowed him to fly at night if conditions were clear without any bad weather.

But the plane flew into a storm over the Channel and it is feared the instruments froze before the aircraft crashed into the sea. 

Mr Martin claims the paperwork shows Mr Ibbotson accepted ‘the disregard of flying with instruments, key to flying between clouds without visibility. That night there were many clouds and a cold snap over the English Channel’.

In order for pilots to fly VFR, they cannot fly through clouds and in some types of airspace they have to be able to see the ground. Cardiff it will be recalled signed Sala for a club record £15 million.

 

A volleyball player says she had a secret relationship with Emiliano Sala and spoke to him just hours before the footballer died in a plane crash over the Channel.

Luiza Ungerer, 31, claims to have last seen the Cardiff City star on his birthday, one week before the tragic incident.

The Brazilian said that she met the 28-year-old while they were both playing for teams in France.

After hearing that the player’s body had been recovered, she wrote online: ‘I’m going to love you forever!’

The volleyball player (pictured, left, with Sala, and, right) declared that she would love the Cardiff City star forever when she heard the news that his body had been discovered

Luiza, who plays for Beziers Angels in France, told news site Globo that it was Sala’s dream to play in the Premier League, which he was heading to do when he was killed after a record £15million signing.

She says they started speaking over social media in September 2017, adding he was ‘very happy’ to be heading to Cardiff from Nantes.

‘It made me really glad because he was very happy,’ she said. ‘It was his dream, to play in the Premier League, the best competition in the world.’

When his body was brought ashore from the Channel, she wrote online: ‘Like you always said to me: “Thank you for being how you are.” I’m going to love you forever!’

The volleyball star added: ‘What I wanted was for him to come back. There are lots of people asking me horrible things about the accident. It’s really difficult.’

She said that Sala was a ‘simple person’ with a pure heart and had no bad intentions. Luiza described him being surprised when people praised him in the street for his performances on the pitch.

Luiza said she clung onto hope after Sala disappeared because hope was all she had in the immediate aftermath.

But the body of his pilot David Ibbotson was not found in the wreckage of the Piper Malibu that disappeared over the Channel last month.

Brendan Allen, acting senior coroner for Dorset, adjourned proceedings in Bournemouth until November 6 for a pre-inquest review.

He told the hearing this was because an Air Accidents Investigation Branch inquiry into the tragedy could take between six months and a year.

 

 

 

 

 

A body retrieved from the wreckage of a crashed plane in the English Channel has been formally identified as Cardiff City’s Argentina-born football player Emiliano Sala, British police said on Thursday.

Sala, 28, had been flying from his previous club Nantes in western France to Wales on Jan. 21.

He was going to make his debut for the English Premier League club when the single-engined Piper Malibu aircraft disappeared over the sea.

Wreckage was found on Sunday following a privately-funded underwater search and a body recovered on Wednesday and taken to southern England.

“The body brought to Portland Port today (Thursday)… has been formally identified by HM Coroner for Dorset as that of professional footballer Emiliano Sala,” the police statement said.

“The families of Mr Sala and the pilot David Ibbotson have been updated with this news and will continue to be supported by specially-trained family liaison officers. Our thoughts remain with them at this difficult time.”

Cardiff posted the statement on their website under a picture of the player.

“We offer our most heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the family of Emiliano. He and David will forever remain in our thoughts,” the Welsh club said.

Sala had agreed to join relegation-threatened Cardiff for a club record fee of 15 million pounds ($19.43 million) from French Ligue 1 club Nantes.

He had played in France since 2012 and scored 12 goals for Nantes this season.

Police said an investigation into the circumstances of the death was continuing.

Efforts to recover the aircraft wreckage have so far been unsuccessful due to poor weather conditions.

The plane had been cruising at 5,000 feet (1,525 m) when the pilot requested to descend to a lower altitude on passing Guernsey.

It then lost radar contact at 2,300 feet.

Argentine newspaper Clarin last month published a voice message that Sala apparently sent to friends while in the air.

“We’re up in the plane and it seems it’s about to crash,” said the message, which Clarin said was verified by Sala’s father, Horacio Sala.

“If you have not heard anything from me in an hour and a half, I don’t know if they’re going to send someone to find me, because, you know, they’re not going to be able to,” the message said. “Dad. I’m really scared.”(Reuters/NAN)

 

The families of Emiliano Sala and Pilot David Ibbotson are waiting to hear whose body in the fuselage of crashed piper Malibu discovered yesterday by family powered independent search party

The first picture of the doomed playing lying 220ft down on the bed of the English Channel was released Monday morning as it was revealed a victim has been found in the wreckage.

The haunting image of the wreckage was released by the Air Accident Investigation Branch whose team also revealed that the body of either Sala or his pilot David Ibbotson is on board.

The operation to recover the doomed plane was cancelled Monday and could be hampered by days of poor weather.

It was found by a sea search vessel paid for by Sala’s family yesterday and a small submarine [ROV] with an HD camera confirmed it was the Piper Malibu that disappeared over the Channel Islands two weeks ago.

The body is also lying either in a seat or under the debris but he has not yet been identified.

An AAIB spokesman said: ‘Tragically, in video footage from the ROV, one occupant is visible amidst the wreckage. The AAIB is now considering the next steps, in consultation with the families of the pilot and passenger, and the police’.

The new image shows the rear left side of the fuselage, including part of the aircraft registration, N264DB.

A decision has yet to be taken on whether to raise the wreckage to the surface.

The statement added: “The AAIB is now considering the next steps, in consultation with the families of the pilot and passenger, and the police.”

Sala’s bereft father Horacio, who has not joined his ex-wife, son and daughter in Britain, told reporters in the Argentinian town of Progreso: ‘I cannot believe it …. this is a dream … a bad dream … I’m desperate’.