Friday November 12th 2021
Sala tragedy three years ago
The organizer of the death flight must be detained
In January 2019, a small plane crashes into the English Channel. On board: Emiliano Sala, record transfer from FC Cardiff on the way to his new employer. The pilot dies with the professional footballer. Now a process has come to an end in which the blame for the tragedy is distributed.
Almost three years after the fatal plane accident of the Argentine soccer professional Emiliano Sala, the person who commissioned the flight has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. The 67-year-old businessman was found guilty by a Cardiff court in October of compromising the safety of the machine. The convict’s lawyers announced they would appeal.
The 28-year-old Sala was to move from French club FC Nantes to Welsh club Cardiff City in a million dollar transfer. On the flight between the two cities, the single-engine Piper Malibu business jet crashed into the English Channel near the island of Guernsey on January 21, 2019. The Argentine Sala and the 59-year-old pilot David Ibbotson died. The amateur pilot did not have a valid license for commercial flights. He had also had no training hours for night flights, was probably affected by carbon monoxide poisoning at the time of the crash, and was traveling too fast. It was only after almost two weeks of searching that the plane was discovered on the ocean floor.
Crowdfunding of the superstars
The 67-year-old entrepreneur arranged the flight together with an agent, but was unable to fly himself because he was in Paris with his wife. Instead, he asked Ibbotson to take over the flight, which was regularly on his behalf.
Cardiff FC had signed Sala in the winter transfer window, a record transfer of the then Premier League club of 15 million pounds (17.8 million euros) was agreed. Sala had already signed his contract in Cardiff and had returned to Nantes to pick up his things and say goodbye to his teammates. The tragedy occurred on January 21, 2019; the search for Sala was initially stopped after a few days.
After a crowdfunding campaign in which stars like Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé also participated, a private search campaign was started. Sala’s body was recovered from the wreck in February 2019, while Ibbotson’s body has never been found. Sala’s father Horacio died of a heart attack two months after the body was found.