Family ‘will never give up hope’ of finding pilot on tragic Sala flight

THE WIFE and daughter of the pilot who was flying the plane carrying Emiliano Sala have said they will never give up hope of finding him, as an inquest was opened and adjourned into the footballer’s death.

David Ibbotson, of Crowle, near Scunthorpe, is still missing after the plane, which was flying Argentine footballer Sala from Nantes in France to Cardiff, crashed in the English Channel on January 21.

The 28-year-old striker had just signed for Cardiff City from Nantes in a record transfer deal.

Acting senior Dorset coroner Brendan Allen heard evidence that a post-mortem examination carried out by Home Office pathologist Dr Basil Purdue had given Sala’s cause of death as “head and trunk injuries”.

The hearing, which lasted five minutes and took place at Bournemouth Town Hall in the absence of members of Sala’s family, was adjourned until November.

Senior coroner’s officer Ian Parry confirmed Sala was pronounced dead at Portland port on February 7 and was formally identified by fingerprints. His full name was given as Emiliano Raul Sala, who was born in 1990 in Argentina. A campaign to restart the search for Mr Ibbotson has raised more than £150,000 of a £300,000 target.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, his daughter Danielle said her father would not give up looking for her if she was missing, so she would not give up on him.

“If you’ve got hope then you shouldn’t give up,” she said. “He wouldn’t stop searching for me.” She added: “We still hope and pray and hope everyone keeps my dad in their prayers.”

A web page raising funds to continue the search for Mr Ibbotson was set up on Friday. A donation under the name of broadcaster Gary Lineker of £1,000 is registered on the page, which he shared with his 7.2m Twitter followers on Saturday.

A £27,000 donation under the name Elie Lottin, made by France’s World Cup winning footballer Kylian Sanmi Mbappe Lottin, is also listed. Sala’s body was recovered in a privately funded search, which was launched after the initial search was called off.