David Henderson was convicted of endangering the safety of an aircraft in relation to the January 2019 plane crash that killed Argentine football player Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson, media reported on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th October, 2021) David Henderson was convicted of endangering the safety of an aircraft in relation to the January 2019 plane crash that killed Argentine football player Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson, media reported on Thursday.
Henderson was convicted by a majority verdict of 10 to two over the death of the soccer player at Cardiff Crown Court, according to Sky News.
The plane carrying Emiliano Sala from Nantes to Cardiff crashed into the English Channel on January 21, 2019, killing the attacker and pilot David Ibbotson. During the flight, Sala recorded a WhatsApp voice message to his friends and said the plane was "falling to pieces" and they should raise the alarm "if in an hour and a half you have no news from me".
Shortly after the plane had crashed, Henderson texted a number of people demanding them to stay silent and warning it would "open a can of worms." The businessman admitted in court that he felt concerned about an investigation into his business relations.
Henderson had organized the flight with football agent William McKay. He had asked Ibbotson to pilot the plane, however, the pilot did not hold a commercial pilot's license, a qualification to fly at night, and his rating to fly the single-engine Piper Malibu was no longer valid. Henderson either did not have a Foreign Carrier Permit which was required to fly passengers in the American plane, or an Air Operator Certificate, which was obligatory to acquire, Sky News reported, citing court documents.
Fay Keely, the owner of the crashed plane, had told Henderson not to allow Ibbotson to fly the plane after being notified by the Civil Aviation Authority about two airspace infringements he had committed, according to the broadcaster.
Henderson has been granted bail to return to be sentenced on November 12.
Emiliano Raul Sala was an Argentine professional footballer who played as a forward. In January 2019, Cardiff affirmed they had signed Sala for a club-record fee from Nantes. The footballer's death sparked a dispute between the two clubs over the payment of the transfer sum.
