Death of footballer Emiliano Sala: an intermediary tried in Cardiff

A man suspected of organizing the flight that transported footballer Emiliano Sala, who died in the plane crash in the English Channel in 2019, is on trial Monday in a court in Cardiff, Wales.

David Henderson, 66, is accused of having acted in a reckless or negligent manner likely to have endangered the plane in which Mr Sala was traveling.

The small private plane on board which was the 28-year-old Argentinian player and pilot David Ibbotson crashed in the English Channel on January 21, 2019. The FC Nantes striker joined the Cardiff City club, where he had just come from be transferred for 17 million euros.

The body of the player, whose disappearance had moved the world of football, had been found in the carcass of the device, more than two weeks after the accident, 67 meters deep. The body of the 59-year-old pilot has not been found.

In its final report published in March 2020, the British Air Accidents Investigation Bureau (AAIB) estimated that the pilot lost control of the aircraft during a maneuver carried out at too high a speed, “probably” intended to avoid bad weather in order to be able to fly on sight.

The aircraft, a Piper PA-46 Malibu, broke up in flight because this maneuver was carried out at excessive speed. Investigators also believe that the pilot was "probably" poisoned by carbon monoxide from the engine's exhaust system.

Investigators also pointed out that the flight was not carried out under conditions that comply with the rules that apply to commercial flights. The pilot navigated by sight, at night, in difficult weather conditions when he did not have the license to fly this type of aircraft or to fly at night, they noted.

The plane was traveling at a speed of 270 miles per hour (435 km/h) at the time of impact with the water, according to the AAIB, excluding any hope of survival.

- " I'm afraid " -

The flight was chartered by the British pilot David Henderson, at the request of the intermediary Willie McKay and his son Mark, the agent mandated by Nantes to carry out the transfer of Sala.

The Cardiff club had assured that it had offered a commercial flight to the player, who had declined it. Before borrowing the small private plane, Emiliano Sala had worried about the state of the device.

“I'm on the plane, it looks like it's going to fall apart, and I'm leaving for Cardiff,” Emiliano Sala said in a voice message sent to relatives via WhatsApp messaging. “Oh dear, what am I afraid of! “, he confided.

David Henderson had pleaded not guilty to breaches of air navigation legislation during a previous appearance in October 2020 in court in Cardiff.

At the end of this hearing, this man from East Yorkshire (north of England) was released on bail pending trial.

Emiliano Sala's remains were repatriated to Argentina in February 2019. Parents, friends, emissaries from Nantes, Bordeaux and Cardiff, residents... Hundreds came to bow, cry, lay a hand on the coffin of the footballer in Progreso, the Argentinian village of 3,000 inhabitants who had seen him grow up .

In France, the tributes had also multiplied after the announcement of the disappearance of the footballer.

Vahid Halilhodzic, then coach of FC Nantes, had confided about the sportsman having “rarely seen someone so endearing, humble, modest. But on the field, he was a warrior”.