DEATH TRAP
Cardiff say answers needed after shocking state of Emiliano Sala’s plane emerges
CARDIFF CITY said ‘people need to be held to account’ last night after it emerged that a scandalous series of errors led to the death of record signing Emiliano Sala in an air crash.
An Air Accidents Investigation Branch report found that the licence of the pilot flying Sala, David Ibbotson, had expired and that the plane had brake problems, no carbon monoxide detectors and a faulty autopilot system. Ibbotson did not even have night-flying training.
The Championship club have insisted that agent Willie McKay must take responsibility for allowing Sala, whose transfer from Nantes he brokered, to fly on the Piper Alpha aircraft. But an examination of the role and responsibilities of the plane’s owner now seems far more significant.
Sportsmail revealed last year that the owner was Derbyshirebased firm Cool Flourish, a management consultancy business whose majority shareholder is Faye Keely, according to Companies House documents.
Ms Keely’s father may have originally owned the aircraft.
Despite Sportsmail’s repeated attempts to speak to them, Ms Keely and her family have neither offered an explanation for the events of January 21 last year, nor expressed remorse.
The Civil Aviation Authority’s investigation and enforcement team are carrying out a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the accident, including whether any aviation offences have been committed. ‘We will provide an update as soon we are able to do so,’ the CAA said last night.
Cardiff are also appealing against UEFA’s decision that they should pay in full the £15million fee agreed with Nantes for Sala, though their legal argument at the Court of Arbitration for Sport will relate to claims that details in the club’s employment contract with him were still to be concluded.
The AAIB report revealed that Ibbotson had heard a ‘bang’ or ‘boom’ during the outward flight to Nantes, where Sala was returning to tie up loose ends before embarking on a career with Cardiff City, and ‘sensed’ mist in the aircraft. The pilot may have felt under pressure to make the return flight, the AAIB found. Investigators believe Ibbotson was probably suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning when the accident happened, caused by a fault in the exhaust tailpipe that allowed gas to enter the cabin through the heating system. Sala and Ibbotson were both affected by the gas.
The report says Ibbotson was probably manoeuvring to avoid heavy rain showers just before the plane crashed. The aircraft broke into three parts over the English Channel because of the speed at which he attempted a manual manoeuvre, banking at 90 degrees. The tail and outer sections of the wings broke off before the plane crashed into the sea.
The craft entered the water upside down and was travelling at 245 knots when the maximum speed allowed is 203 knots. The report stated the loss of control was likely because the flight was ‘not conducted in accordance with safety standards applicable to commercial operation’.
Ibbotson was paid for the flight even though his licence did not permit such transactions, and his European Union Aviation Safety Agency rating had expired three months before the crash, leaving him unqualified to fly the aircraft.
The craft’s autopilot system had also been diagnosed as having an intermittent fault.
It was not engaged at the time of the crash but it has not been established if this was because it was not working or because Ibbotson turned it off.