Businessman David Henderson, 67, was tried in Cardiff this Wednesday for recklessness or negligence that could have endangered the aircraft in which Argentine attacker Emiliano Sala was traveling.
After more than seven hours of deliberation, the court in Wales announced on Thursday that the businessman is guilty. The penalty will be announced Nov. 12 and Henderson faces a five-year prison sentence.
He could also be sentenced to two years for carrying a passenger without the relevant authorization, a charge he admitted and on which the jury did not rule on the matter.
The small private plane in which Argentinian player and pilot David Ibbotson were traveling had an accident in the English Channel on January 21, 2019. The player’s body, whose death shook the world of football, was found inside the aircraft more than two weeks after the accident, at 67 meters deep. The body of the 59-year-old pilot has not been found.
According to the prosecution’s version during the process, the defendant was supposed to pilot the aircraft, but as he was on vacation in Paris with his wife, he entrusted the transport to David Ibbotson. The latter did not have a commercial pilot’s license, his qualification for this type of aircraft had expired and he did not have the necessary preparation for night flights.
In the case report, British investigators claimed that the pilot lost control of the plane during a maneuver performed at a very high speed, “probably” designed to avoid bad weather.
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