Pilot of ill-fated Sala flight not licensed for plane, report finds

The pilot of the single-engine aircraft that carried the Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala was not licensed to fly the plane, which plunged into the English Channel last year killing both, UK investigators said.

Argentinian striker Sala, 28, was being flown from Nantes in France to his new club Cardiff City when the aircraft plunged into the English Channel on January 21, 2019. His body was recovered from the seabed 68 metres down.

A Nantes supporter stops by a poster of Argentinian player Emiliano Sala ” outside La Beaujoire stadium. Credit:AP

In its final report over the January 21, 2019 crash, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said neither the pilot, David Ibbotson, nor the Piper Malibu plane had the required licences or permissions to operate commercially.

It said the plane broke up while being flown too fast for its design limits during bad weather and that the 59-year-old pilot was likely affected by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Investigators said Ibbotson had no training for night flights and lacked recent practice in relying only on cockpit instruments to control a plane. His body has not been found.

‘‘Control of the aircraft was lost during a manually flown turn, and the aircraft descended rapidly accelerating,’’ said Geraint Herbert, the investigator in charge. ‘‘The aircraft rolled to the left and there was an abrupt nose-up control input, at a speed well above the maximum permitted for such an input.’’

Herbert said the resulting loads on the plane were ‘‘excessive’’ and caused the aircraft to ‘‘break up in flight’’.

Investigators also concluded that the plane entered the sea upside down and that the impact was ‘‘not survivable’’.

AP

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