Fans caught making Sala ‘plane’ jibe
TWO Southampton fans were detained by police yesterday for mocking the death of Emiliano Sala by making airplane gestures towards Cardiff supporters inside St Mary’s Stadium.
It was Cardiff’s first game since it was confirmed their £15million signing had died in a plane crash — and tributes were paid before the game.
Then sickening footage emerged showing two men in the stands stretching their arms out wide and pretending to be planes as they gestured towards the away end.
Cardiff fans can be heard in the video calling them ‘sick’ while a steward approaches the pair. Both had their details taken by Hampshire Police and face three-year banning orders.
The visitors won via a stoppage-time winner from Kenneth Zohore and manager Neil Warnock said: ‘We wanted to do it for Emiliano and I’m really proud the lads have done him justice.’
DETAILS of the owners of the aircraft which crashed, killing Cardiff striker Emiliano Sala, have been removed or withheld from the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States, in what appears to a concerted attempt to keep their identity a secret.
Establishing the identity of the owners is a priority of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). But, as The
Mail on Sunday revealed last week, the Piper Malibu plane had been registered in the US in the name of a British-based trustee firm, Southern Aircraft Consultancy Inc, in a way which prevents the actual owner being known.
The 39-year-old aircraft’s listing with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) states that there were no previous owners. The MoS, however, is aware of at least two. One company has past and present directors based at three UK addresses. But two of those were empty when we visited this week. Staff at one address — a mansion in Nottinghamshire — ordered us to leave the grounds.
The ownership of the aircraft may prove key to who is financially liable for the losses incurred by Cardiff City — who have to pay Nantes for the player who died before he had a chance to kick a ball for them.
The AAIB is likely to focus on why pilot Dave Ibbotson, who also died in the crash, chose to make the flight from Nantes at night in bitterly cold conditions on January 21. Sala told friends in a WhatsApp message that the aircraft ‘seems like it is falling to pieces’ shortly before its disappearance. One experienced pilot who has spoken to the MoS said that what he may have heard was ice falling from the wing.
‘The ice completely alters the flying characteristics of the plane,’ the pilot said. ‘You are flying in an ice cube. The only way to warm the aircraft up is descend.’