Death of footballer Emiliano Sala: a man suspected of organizing flight judged in Cardiff

David Henderson, who had pleaded not guilty of violations of air navigation legislation in a previous appearance, in October 2020, had been released on bail pending his trial.

Le Monde with AFP

A man suspected of organizing the flight that transported the footballer Emiliano Sala, dead into the crash of the plane in the Channel in 2019, is judged, Monday, October 18, in a Cardiff court, in Wales . David Henderson, 66, is accused of having acted in a reckless or negligent way likely to have endangered the aircraft in which Mr. Sala traveled.

The small private plane, the 28-year-old Argentine player and David Ibbotson pilot, had damaged in the Channel on January 21, 2019. The FC Nantes striker joined the Cardiff City Club, where he had just been transferred for 17 million euros.

The player’s body, whose disappearance had moved the world of football, had been found in the carcass of the device, more than two weeks after the accident, 67 meters deep. The 59-year-old driver body was not found.

Speed ​​too high

In its final report published in March 2020, the British Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) considered that the pilot has lost control of the device, a Piper PA-46 Malibu, during a Maneuver performed at too high speed, “probably” designed to avoid bad weather to be able to fly to view. The aircraft was launched at a speed of 270 miles per hour (435 km / h) at the time of the impact with the water, according to the AAIB, excluding any hope of survival.

Investigators also believe that the pilot, “probably” been intoxicated with carbon monoxide by the engine exhaust system. The investigators also pointed out that the flight was not carried out under conditions in accordance with the rules applicable for commercial flights. The pilot has sailed at night, at night, in difficult weather while he did not have the license to pilot this type of airplane or to fly at night, they raised.

The flight was chartered by the British driver David Henderson, at the request of the intermediary Willie McKay and his son Mark, the agent mandated by Nantes to carry out the transfer of sala.

“Oh la, what am I scared!”

The Cardiff club had provided a commercial flight to the player, who had declined it. Before borrowing the small private plane, Emiliano Sala had worried about the state of the device. “I’m on the plane, it looks like he’s going to fall into pieces, and I’m going for Cardiff,” Emiliano Sala said in a vocal message sent to loved ones through the WhatsApp messaging. “Oh, what am I afraid!” Had he entrusted.

David Henderson had pleaded not guilty of offenses on air navigation legislation in a previous appearance, in October 2020, before the Cardiff court. At the end of this hearing, this man from the East Yorkshire (northern England) had been released on bail pending his trial.

The remains of Emiliano Sala had been repatriated in February 2019 in Argentina. Parents, friends, scissaries of Nantes, Bordeaux and Cardiff, inhabitants … They were hundreds to come cling to bow, crying, put a hand on the coffin of the footballer in Progreso, the Argentine village of 3,000 inhabitants who had seen him Growing up.

In France, tributes were also increased after the announcement of the demise of the footballer. Vahid Halilhodzic, then coach of FC Nantes, had entrusted about the sportsman having “rarely saw someone so endearing, humble, modest. But on the ground, it was a warrior”.

/Media reports.