Owner of the plane in which Emiliano Sala died asked not to resort to the accident pilot

The owner of the plane in which the Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala crashed requested that David Ibbotson, the pilot of the trip, no longer pilot the aircraft, due to the air infractions he had committed.

Fay Keely, owner of the plane, participated this Wednesday in the trial of David Henderson, who pleaded guilty to organizing the flight from Sala without having the necessary permits, but who denied the charges of having acted negligently and having endangered the plane.

According to Keely’s testimony, she told Henderson that pilot David Ibbotson should not fly the plane because he had been alerted to two infractions by the British air authorities.

“I made it clear that I shouldn’t fly the aircraft”, told a jury in Cardiff. Henderson is accused of knowing that Ibbotson was not qualified and still giving the green light to make the Nantes-Cardiff route on the night of January 21, with the bad weather conditions in the English Channel and that they ended up shooting down the plane and with the lives of Sala and Ibbotson.

According to Keely, she bought the plane, on the advice of Henderson in 2015, and he stayed in charge of maintenance of the aircraft contracting tasks, as well as of choosing the pilots competent for travel.

On July 6, 2018, Keely sent an email to Henderson warning that Ibbotson should not pilot the aircraft. more because the air authorities had notified him of two infractions when he was flying.

“I am not very confident in how he treats the aircraft. I think the best thing would be if I didn’t ride it again, ”he said.

Despite this, Ibbotson carried out the flight, according to the trial because Henderson was in Paris and he could not take Sala directly to Cardiff.

In addition, as revealed by the investigation into the deaths of the footballer and the pilot, Ibbotson did not have a license for commercial travel and his permit to fly the accident aircraft had expired. (D)