February 26 – The pilot of the light aircraft which crashed into the English Channel killing both himself and the sole passenger, Cardiff City’s new striker Emiliano Sala, did not have a licence for commercial flights, investigators say.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) confirmed David Ibbotson held a private pilot’s licence. Its interim report said he could only fly passengers in the European Union on a cost-sharing basis, not for reward.
Cost sharing on private flights is allowed in the UK and the report said Ibbotson had operated these type of flights before. However, the report added that because the aircraft was US-registered, it was subject to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, which meant he could only make the flight legally if he was paying half the operating expenses.
The report said that, on the basis of a cost-sharing flight, it “must not be made for the purpose of merely transporting the passenger”. But it pointed out that Ibbotson had approximately 3,700 flying hours and held a private pilot’s licence in the UK and US.
Cardiff City had already said it had “grave concerns” and questions over the validity of the pilot’s licence.
Investigators have not yet been able to establish what arrangement Ibbotson had with Sala whose body was found in the wreckage of the plane that was found on the seabed 13 days after it vanished over Guernsey.
He had completed his transfer to Premier League side Cardiff from French club Nantes just two days earlier – for a club record fee of £15 million – and had returned to France to say goodbye to his former teammates.
The pilot has not yet been found and his family hope a fresh search for his body will begin this week after setting up an online fundraising campaign which has raised £250,000. The aircraft remains underwater off the coast of Guernsey after an attempt to recover it was hampered by bad weather.
Accident investigators have also revealed that in the last 15 minutes of the doomed flight the pilot descended sharply four times telling air traffic control he was struggling with visibility.
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