Trial hears messages show defendant knew pilot wasn’t qualified for bad weather

MESSAGES reveal the operator of a plane, who is on trial over organising the flight that crashed and killed footballer Emiliano Sala, knew the pilot he had hired was not qualified to fly, a court has heard.

David Henderson, 67, is charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft and has pleaded guilty to attempting to discharge a passenger without valid permission or authorisation.

Henderson, a pilot, is said to have arranged the flight carrying 28-year-old Sala and pilot Dave Ibbotson, 59, that crashed north of Guernsey in January 2019.

Martin Goudie QC, prosecuting, told the jury at Cardiff Crown Court that Henderson “was aware that there were issues with Mr Ibbotson’s flying from the start”.

The court heard how Henderson received a message from another person who had flown with Mr Ibbotson, describing his flying as “all over the place”.

In the summer of 2018 he had received an email from the owner of the plane, Fay Keely, saying that Mr Ibbotson should no longer pilot the plane after she was contacted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) over two airspace infringements that had happened when Mr Ibbotson was flying.

Henderson later told Mr Ibbotson in a message: “We both have an opportunity to make money out of the business model but not if we upset clients or draw the attention of the CAA.”

Further communications show Henderson knew Mr Ibbotson only had a private pilot licence, and that he had still not qualified to fly at night or in bad weather, when he was organising for him to transport Mr Sala a month later in January.

In the run up to the flight, Henderson messaged Mr Ibbotson asking whether he could fly on his instruments, rather than by sight, due to the bad weather forecast.

The prosecutor told the court: “The response is not that I am qualified and more than competent to do this, but I have done it before and you know I am not qualified.”

Mr Goudie told the court Henderson had ignored the regulations as it was in his “business interests” to do so.

The court heard the plane was purchased in August 2015 by Southern Aircraft Consultancy Inc, a company that specialises in organising the ownership of aircraft into trusts.

The trust was Cool Flourish Ltd, a family company of which Ms Keely was the director and secretary.

Mr Goudie said Ms Keely says she would pay the bills but Henderson dealt with the day-to-day management of the plane.

“This included organising of the maintenance, hiring out the aircraft and selecting pilots to fly it,” Mr Goudie said.